Technically, there are three ladies here. Jeez. Another film by Ozu dealing with change, accepting it with grace, this time centered around the idea of growing up and leaving behind childish things, like a beard, while retaining the parts of you that should grow with age. There's also the first instance of a gag writer credit (James Maki, which was apparently Ozu's pseudonym) that I've seen in his films (there may be others, but I don't read Japanese), implying a much funnier film that the more sedate, amusing, and ultimately even kind of touching film we got.
The beard is Okajima (Tokihiko Okada), a university student and kendo enthusiast with a distinctive looking black beard. He's a great kendo player, thinks women dressing in western styles look silly, and is full of energy to do some kind of exaggerated Noa dance for the girls at his friend's house. The friend is Teruo (Ichiro Tsukida) whose sister, Ikuko (Toshiko Iizuka), is one of the ladies of the title. The other two are the modern girl, Furyou (Satoko Date), a thug with a penchant for threatening innocent young women for their cash, like Hiroko (Hiroko Kawasaki) whom Okajima saves with little more than a stern look and then a smile.
Things turn, though, when Okajima graduates from university and enters the workforce, his beard becoming a barrier for his entry into any position. This is handled in one of those little gags that Ozu wrote, and I think it's a good example of how the gags are not Chaplin or Keaton level hilarity, but more in line with imitation of Lubitsch. I've seen it written that Ozu loved Lubitsch movies (at this time, that would include his early Hollywood films like The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg), so the influence becomes obvious at a certain point. Anyway, Okajima sits down in a chair to have his interview with a man behind a newspaper. Idly, Okajima fingers the chair's upholstery and pulls out some black stuffing from its insides. He looks at it just in time for the man across the desk from him to look up and see what looks like Okajima playing with bits of his own beard, perhaps implying that its fake. The joke ultimately being that the man across the desk has his own beard, white and wispy, and it makes Okajima look like he's putting on a front to get the job. So, he doesn't get it. It's a funny joke, and it's built on this escalation of an idea like Lubitsch. It's amusing, not hilarious, and it works.
To continue making the point about the Lubitsch influence, I have to take note of some of the editing that creates humor. That's less a vaudeville influence and more purely cinematic, the realm where Lubitsch was making a lot of his humor. I think of the moment where Okajima explains to Hiroko his picture of Lincoln, focusing on the beard, and then a cut to a Lincoln car. It's an amusing contrast of a moment that leads from one scene to the next.
Anyway, the story moves with Hiroko advising Okajima to shave off his beard to get a job, him getting a job as a hotelier, and running into Furyou again, all while Teruo deals with a haughty, high class attempt at setting her up for marriage and realizing that Okajima, whom she detested in the beginning, is actually right for her, and Okajima admits his affections for Hiroko to her mother. It's an interesting dynamic as all three women end up yearning for him, some done for comedic purposes (Teruo), but the most for the dramatic point of the film: change and permanence at the same time.
It's a lighter subject that what we'll get later in Ozu's career, not hitting the deeper emotional lines but still finding a way to connect anyway. The resolution is almost slight, another point towards the Lubitsch comparison, but it's nice. And that's the movie. Nice, amusing, a bit slight, but ultimately a handsomely produced, entertaining package with a hook for the title and the poster.
This Ozu guy, he had talent.
