Gan

Unspeakably beautiful, delicate and immutable. There is no weakness in the chain of imagery, the power of forces controlling the lives of the characters, painted on the screen like calligraphy. Necessity cages the characters in images as simple as a bird threatened by a snake, to the money lender once janitor to the kept woman generous to her servant to the cruelty of the wagging tongues. Nothing here a traditional American audience demands and receives from Hollywood; only the lucidity of the haiku or bonsai, the migration of the wild geese. Cinematic perfection.

A young beautiful delicate woman is tricked into marriage with a money-lender, fooled by her mother, who wants the money-lender for her son-in-law to get rid of her debts, and she tells her daughter that he is a widower. He is not. His wife is still there with two children, and when the bartered concubine and the real wife learn about each other, and the new bride realizes that she has been tricked, this film becomes truly interesting. She evades the old wife consistently in sheer terror of her righteous bitterness, while the reality of her own situation of humiliation gradually becomes unbearable. At the same time, the money-lender is in a tragic and awkward situation himself as well, and to all this comes the complication of a young student of medicine, as he and the young wife develop some affection for each other. It's a very human story of very human predicaments filmed with supreme delicacy, bringing out all the passionate feelings of the players without these having to show them, it's all under perfect restraint, consistently keeping up an exquisite style of extreme artistry, to which also the wonderful misty cinematography and the endearingly beautiful music bring some additions to bring this cinematographic work of art to perfection. There is nothing more to be said than to agree with a previous critic, summarizing the impressions to 100% perfection - it's a Madame Butterfly in perfect Japanese without opera and dramatic climaxes but instead the more delicate and beautiful in consummate human sensitivity.

"She's uncontrollable when she gets hysterical." "That's because you lied to her, like all men."

This is a heartfelt melodrama, one that empathizes with women and the unfair position they held in the Meiji era of Japan, 1868-1912, and, perhaps by extension, their position when the film was made. The premise is simple: out of financial desperation, a young woman (Hideko Takemine) becomes the mistress to a loathsome money lender, only afterwards finding out his real occupation, and that he's married. She's been set up by a woman who owes the loan shark money and hopes to use the relationship to get out of debt, and she's encouraged in this by her elderly father as a practical way for them to get out of poverty. She had been duped by a man before, you see, and is "damaged," limiting her prospects. The feeling of her being trapped, forced to use her body as her only option, is heartbreaking.

When the young woman meets a medical student (Hiroshi Akutagawa) the pair have eyes for one another, but class restrictions make entertaining a romance difficult. Another student points out to the young man that he's a medical student and she's a kept woman, so he should forget about her. Meanwhile, her father, who's essentially profited from his daughter having sex with a middle-aged man, cautions her, saying "How can you give up the life you have and go back to the living hell of poverty?" Meanwhile, the mistress's "master" (Eijiro Tono) keeps a close eye on her, and despite his duplicity to both his wife and her, has the nerve to get upset even when he finds out she's learning to sew kimonos, saying, "Have you been hiding something from me? I won't allow that!" Not surprisingly, the double standard is in full effect.

Hideko Takemine plays her part with the perfect balance between control and emotion, and is radiant to say the least. The shot where director Shiro Toyoda changes the lighting on her face from background to foreground in a close-up is absolutely gorgeous. Her character has a sense of integrity even when trying to fulfill the obligations of the role fate has assigned her, heightening the emotions. It seems she's constantly having to slide the windows of her little apartment closed, as people walking by peer in, or her master wants her. In this I saw a symbol of hiding, or the potential for discovery of unpleasant truths, bringing shame to her.

To Toyoda's credit, he humanizes all of these characters, including the moneylender, who we find had to work hard as a janitor to college students, saving his meager tips before starting his business. His wife finds out about the affair through a clever device in the plot, and vents her displeasure with him. First he denies it, and then when confronted with evidence, admits it but says her "job" as a wife has actually gotten easier now, though the film's sympathies are clearly with her.

The film also does not succumb to artifice in its main story, or its few subplots. There is a woman with five children who owes the moneylender, and to keep up with her payments, is forced to become a prostitute down by the river. While there is a level of acceptance in the ending for the main character, there is also a cruel reality, especially as we imagine her future. Great film, and a near miss for an even higher rating.

(1953) The Wild Geese/ Gan (In Japanese with English subtitles) DRAMA/ CHARACTER STUDY

Adapted from the novel by Ogai Mori, that has an elder lady, Oshige attempting to set up a single and rather young, Otama (Hideko Takamine) with a date with her loan shark, in exchange for him to forgive the loan. At the same time Oshige continues to remind her that her impoverished dad's health is waning, and at some point may not be able to continue to sell penny candy anymore. By the time, Oshige manages to convince Otami for a meet and greet, it turns out, he Suezô, (Eijirô Tôno) is a much older man, and that his occupation is really a money lender, often loathed by the community because of his interest rates. Contradicting what was told to her about him, that he owns a kimono shop, and that despite having him having children, he has no wife at all because she is deceased. Otami, of course eventually finds out about this after already accepting lavish gifts and a better home, including a housekeeper. She also finds out that her dad also knows about it as well, but chose not to say anything, she at this point begin to accept the term of her being his "mistress". Creating conflict within herself as she becomes accustomed to be attracted to a student who walks past her house daily, we find out he is a student, Mr Okada (Hiroshi Akutagawa) studying to be a doctorate. And he too depends on the loan shark, Suezô, some people often call "the master".

What I like about this movie is it's subtleties in terms of it's approach that does not need to be graphic, but is shown instead many implications, both from Otama's point of view as well as her father to other's that have their own selfish reasons the reason why some have done the things each of them have done.

An example of all that is great about Japanese cinema prior to its decline in the 1960s. It is pictorially exquisite, leisurely paced but never dull, well-acted with just the right amount of melodrama, and directed by a master in top form. The director, Shiro Toyoda, is a superb Japanese film director that has yet to be discovered in the West, though a few of his films, such as "Wild Geese" and "Snow Country" can be found on video.

The story is of a young woman whose relationships with men in the past have been stormy, and who finds herself once again in a bad situation. She becomes the mistress of a wealthy moneylender, believing him to be a merchant who has been recently widowed and that he will soon marry her. She discovers his lies but cannot leave him because of the money he has given to her elderly father. Soon she falls in love with a student that passes by her house every day on the way home, but their relationship ends before it even begins when he is accepted as an apprentice to a doctor in Germany.

"The Mistress" is a beautifully shot film that captures with subtlety and grace the central character's tragedy through its images. It is also an admirable film for its restraint in not descending into the pit of tear-jerking sentimentality that so many Japanese films of the period (even some of the good ones) so frequently did.