Le grondement de la montagne

The team of Hara, Kawabata, Naruse, and Uehara is back with another inconsistent, too long film about marital (and other) woes. When it's focusing on the love affair between the elderly father, wonderfully played by So Imamura, and his young, child like daughter in law, affectingly portrayed, as usual, by Setsuko H, the film can stand comparison with the master of heartbreaking, Japanese family drama, Ozu. However, when it wanders off into side stories, like the one about the son's mistress and the mistress' room mate, things can, frankly, get a bit dull. Give it a B minus. PS...It's a long time coming but that last scene in a Tokyo park is a real ticker tugger.

"Yama no oto" is, in essence, the story of the love between a daughter-in-law (Setsuko Hara) and the father (So Yamamura) of her neglectful and selfish husband (Ken Uehara). As Yamamura becomes more and more aware of the unhappiness of Hara, he takes ever more unconventional steps to try to rescue his son's marriage (for instance, approaching his son's mistress). Though the issues of infidelity, abortion and divorce swirl through this film, the tone is remarkably low-key and unmelodramatic. The cinematography here is similar to that found in Ozu's films of this period, though not so rigorous. The performances of Hara and Yamamura are superb. A very well-done and moving film by Japan's greatest neglected master.

The businessman Ogata Shingo (Sô Yamamura) works with his son Shuichi (Ken Uehara), who is his secretary, and they live together in the suburb with their wives Yasuko (Teruko Nagaoka) and Kikuko (Setsuko Hara) respectively. Shuichi has a love affair and has a loveless marriage with Kikuko. Yasuko has dedicated her entire life to her family but Shingo married her only because her older sister had died. Kikuko is the pride and joy of Shingo and they are close to each other.

Out of the blue, Shingo and Yasuko's daughter Fusako (Chieko Nakakita) leaves her husband and arrives at Shingo's home with her two children. Shingo investigates and finds the address of Shuichi's lover. Meanwhile Kikuko goes to the hospital and Shingo learns that she was pregnant but decided to abort her child.

"Yama no oto" is a movie about forbidden love based on the novel of Yasumari Kawabata and directed by Mikio Naruse that uses the favorite theme of Ozu – the family drama - and similar locations. The story is based on the patriarch Shingo, a man that has married his wife without loving her but also respected her along their lives. He feels a forbidden love with his sister-in-law Kikuko, a woman that is apparently submissive working as a servant at home, but strong enough to abort her child to avoid keeping her loveless marriage with her husband. Fusako is Shingo's estranged daughter that is also strong enough to leave her husband and move with her children to her parents' home. This women behavior is unusual in Japanese movies from these years. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Som da Montanha" ("The Sound of the Mountain")

An honest look at marriage, adultery, divorce, and abortion, especially refreshing for 1954, and with the emotions between an elderly man (So Yamamura) and his daughter-in-law (Setsuko Hara) poignantly rendered. His son / her husband (Ken Uehara) is a real piece of work, brazenly carrying on with other women, staying out late, and getting physically abusive when they don't do as he wishes (referred to, not shown). Meanwhile the man's daughter is also in a broken marriage, returning home with her two children because her husband's cheating on her. The film calls out bad male behavior by showing its impact, and the conversations between characters feels fairly modern.

One of the things altered relative to Yasunari Kawabata's novel is the elderly man's mental state, which in this adaptation isn't declining with age, with accompanying melancholy. Another is his relationship with his daughter-in-law; clearly they have a connection in the film, but it's based on simple kindness and admiration, and erotic feelings on his part aren't involved. The result is a character who is on the surface a decent old man, still married to his own wife despite his own indiscretions and having been more attracted to her older sister long ago. He's not particularly effective in reining in his son, however, and he doesn't give his own daughter enough affection or attention, reserving those things for his daughter-in-law. In that sense he's failed in life.

As in many of her films, Setsuko Hara is the brightest light in the cast. Her character is simple, kind, and filial (derisively referred to as "childlike" by her husband), but shows a toughness in the actions she takes. Hara brings out the emotions very well, and while the ending gets a little melodramatic, it has power. Overall, just a very well done, well-paced film from Mikio Naruse.

I admit it. I'm a sucker for this type of movie. Old black-and-white film, well-acted and scripted, whether Japanese or American, and I'm lost.

Even better, this one has some top-notch dialogue. The scene where the father confronts the brassy mistress of his son has dialogue worthy of more than one Hollywood greats.

This film is a terrific high-class soap opera which brutally examines fracturing personal relationships in one family in post-war Japan. The previous reviewer implies that this is not among this director's great work. All I can say is, if this is a middling effort, then I for one have much movie-viewing pleasure ahead.

Highly recommended.