Meshi

Hara gives a stellar performance. However, if you're new to her or if you're new to Japanese films, period, then this is not the place to start. Unfortunately, I find this film boring. I would've given it a 4, but Hara's performance bumps it up at least three stars to a 7.

There is no plot, just the point that Hara's character feels trapped in a boring marriage as she leads a mundane existence. There's no real action, no intense conflict--at least none that isn't internal. This is purely a character study and psychological look into a failing marriage.

I will say that the movie, in my opinion, does an excellent job at reminding us that marriage is meant to be forever but that doesn't mean it will always be a source of joy. It's just like life, in general--it's a mix of pleasant and unpleasant and, yes, even mundane experiences. And I tip my hat to the director for expressing that so keenly.

But the truth is, I wanted to stop watching halfway through because I was bored. I kept watching, though, because of Hara. What an amazing actress she was.

Unsubbed, so I cannot really review it properly. Setsuko Hara is radiant though quite bland as the housewife who gets fed up with her husbands deroutes, especially regarding his (rather innocent) adventures with a young niece. She moves back with her relatives, but once hubby shows up in a more humble state, all is forgiven. I don't think much else actually happened, but the film is given to describing the everyday tasks and problems rather than great melodrama. Although Ozu is hailed as the great Japanese director for the Japanese, it seems to me that Naruse's film are more effortlessly showing the natural life of Mr. and Mrs. Japan, while Ozu's often come across as more staged tableaux. This is likely because of the invariably fixed and central camera Ozu employs, which makes the room in which a scene takes place appear as a stage and the action strictly choreographed. Compared with Ozu Naruse's camera is quite more engaged, however subtle the movements and variations may be, and he makes more frequent use of semi-close ups and reaction shots.

A sensitive look at an unhappy housewife, with fine performances by Setsuko Hara as the wife and Ken Uehara as the everyman schlub she's married to, and incisive dialogue and characterization by, among others, Nobel Prize winning novelist Yasunari Kawabata, this film ultimately succumbs to overly deliberate pacing, too many sub plots that go nowhere and add nada, a sexist ending that is an ode to wifely submission and a general sense, for me at least, that I'd rather be watching Ozu. Give it a B minus. PS...Coulda used more of the cat and less of Satoko.

Being a housewife in a working-class mews in Osaka has grown wearying for Setsuko Hara. Life with Ken Uehara is a dull routine of breakfast with him reading the newspaper, her scrubbing the house, and him coming home late to announce he's hungry. It all boils over when his flibbertigibbet niece, Yukiko Shimazaki, shows up. She has run away from home, rather than marry the rich man her parents have chosen. Uehara buys tickets to take them all on a Sunday outing. Setsuko stays home to scrub the tatami mats. She wants to run away to Tokyo and her mother. She decides not to. She's going to leave that night. Maybe she'll leave in the morning.

Mikio Naruse was one of the two principle directors of Shomin-Gekim dramas of the the working poor in Japan; the other was the revered Ozu, for whom Miss Hara often worked -- when Ozu died, she retired. Naruse's film looks far more like a conventional film than Ozu's -- moving shots, camera placement above the floor, and so forth -- but with this movie he tackles a story; Ozu may show the audience the working parts of his families -- because of their interchangeable casts, sometimes they all seem like the same family -- and how they work. His movies are group portraits. Naruse tackles the question of why they should work, why they should put up with the drudgery, and makes that voyage of self-discovery his film's story.

Bob

Gentle and touching portrait of a marriage. Setsuko Hara and Ken Uehara play a young married couple who have been living in Osaka for a while now, after having met and married in Tokyo. Life in Osaka is pretty dull, especially for Hara, who does little but housewife day in and day out. Uehara doesn't make much money, and his job prospects are weak. They're in a rut. When Uehara's beautiful young niece comes for an unannounced visit, Hara's dissatisfaction with life becomes too much to bear. As is usual for Naruse, the characters are extremely well developed and their emotional dilemmas are very easy to sympathize with. The acting is excellent throughout, with Hara giving one of her very best performances.