Anma to onna

This is a fairly strange little film in that it's surprisingly hard to pin down what genre it is. Maybe that's not a bad thing, because even if it makes the movie hard to explain, it does lead to the feeling of seeing something you haven't seen before.

I guess at its broadest, the film follows two blind masseurs (neither are samurais, unlike their fellow cinematic blind masseur, Zatoichi. They end up at a remote resort in the mountains, and encounter various other characters whose lives they all get mixed up in.

For a movie that's only just over an hour long, it really does feel like there are a ton of characters. Maybe not too many, but you do have to get a handle on them all pretty quickly.

Otherwise, it's a decently good watch. It looks nice and has a premise where you're never quite sure what's coming next. There's an element of mystery to the film, but it seems pretty minor overall, with the film more focused on character interactions, light comedy, and some dramatic moments here and there.

Japanese cinema pre-WW2 is very interesting, and completely unlike the films that came after WW2 (the divide is far more noticeable than say pre-WW2 American films versus post-WW2 American films). For any fans of old Japanese movies, The Masseurs and a Woman is probably worth your time, especially because when it comes to time, it doesn't take up very much of it.

Two blind masseurs, like birds, go to the north on Spring and to the South on Fall. They arrive in a small village on the mountains, where they meet a woman from Tokyo (Edokko) and one of them fall in love with the lady. The masseur is blind, but he understand that she has a mysterious past and he can't understand why she is there. At the Inn there is also a man from Tokyo with a boy about 7 years old, that spend fishing most of the day. After a couple of days the two Edokko feel comfortable to spend together most of the day. This is one of the best Shimuzu Hiroshi's movie and the characters are sweeter here than Ozu and Yamanka's movies. The initial and final sequences are very suggestive: you feel like you are in the movie! greatest experience.

This film reminds me a lot of Jacques Tati's M. Hulot's Holiday. It's an ensemble piece taking place at a spa. The main characters are a group of blind masseurs and, as the title says, a woman, but there are several other characters wandering around the resort. It has a certain gentleness to it that's really quite wonderful, and it's beautifully made. There are a couple of standout sequences, most notably the one where one blind masseuse encounters the woman and notices her by her perfume. But she stays completely silent and watches him while he searches for her. The tone of the film is slightly comic, but in this area it doesn't succeed very well. There are a lot of jokes at the expense of the blind men, which just seems tasteless, even for 1938.

Director Shimizu's film is fairly unique, about a group of blind masseurs who go to work at a retreat in the mountains to ply their trade. Once there, one particular one named Toku massages a young woman from Tokyo (her name is never mentioned) who seems to be escaping or hiding something. He is very interested in her, as is a young man who brought his nephew to the retreat. a few things happen, but this film is not about action its about infatuation, trust and loneliness. What I find fascinating about this film is the emphasis on the characters, specifically the blind men. You see how aware they are of their surroundings, how they react to things and how they make their choices. The film is meant to play at a slow pace, so don't expect action. The film is about 66 minutes long, but I was waiting for the next scene to see what happens. Through use of multiple fade outs, you see how the scenes become a new situation in which to focus on. I have seen this director's "Ornamental Hairpin", which is also on the Janus films collection released domestically. I highly recommend it, because this is a director forgotten in the brilliance of Kurasawa, Ozu, Naruse, Mizoguchi, Kinoshita etc. If you like Japanese films from the past, you owe it to yourself to watch Shimizu. I really liked this slow moving but compelling film.

The director (and writer) Hiroshi Shimizu brings us a gem from 1930s Japanese cinema.

The story is touching, and the motion picture has the rare property of being able to bring you into the world it is depicting; which in this movie's case is a world of mountains, calm old-fashioned Japanese interior settings, as well as calm small rivers and forests.

The effect of this movie upon the attentive viewer is one of calmness, and the way in which the picture immerses us into the world is at times even intense. You will recognize the mentioned intensity in some intimate scenes.

Furthermore, the characters are well-thought-out and appear very real. But somehow the experience seems more true, than if it had been a documentary filming temporary inhabitants of the lodgings...

The music (when it at tasteful intervals plays) is delightful - as is the old-fashioned beauty of the by then only 19-year old heroine, played by Mieko Takamine.

The movements of the camera as well as knowing when to keep the camera in place are noticeable, and are typical of the virtuosity of early Japanese cinema styles; leaving behind unforgettable images of a woman holding an umbrella with a downcast glance into a river, raindrops onto water and a horse carriage rolling down a rickety path away from the place where the story unfolds...