Maternité éternelle

Original title: Chibusa yo eien nare

1955
1h 46m

IMDb RATING

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Fumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man who shows a low self esteem, shares her family life with her asleep vocation as a poetess. The beginning of her successful litera... Read allFumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man who shows a low self esteem, shares her family life with her asleep vocation as a poetess. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and the development of a serious illness: a breast ca... Read allFumiko, mother of two children and wife of an unfaithful man who shows a low self esteem, shares her family life with her asleep vocation as a poetess. The beginning of her successful literary career coincides with her divorce and the development of a serious illness: a breast cancer, which leads her to lose her breasts. In the last stage of her life she meets a young... Read all

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IMDb RATING

7.7/10

798

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

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7.7798

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6boblipton

Life Is Hard And Death Harder

Yumeji Tsukiokam. Is the mother of two and wife of Junkichi Orimoto. He is out of a job, drinking heavily, and dislikes her efforts to become a poet. He cheats on her with an old girlfriend, so she leaves him. Then she comes down with breast cancer. She gets a mastectomy. Then it metastasizes, just as her gloomy poems become the rage of the Tokyo literary set. Reporter Ryôji Hayama writes of her travails, and goes to visit her. At first she is defiant, but gradually comes to trust him as her life sinks low.

Kinuyo Tanaka directed this movie about misery, death, and acceptance ina way that had me looking for one ray of sunshine. Alas, there was none. The most that one can claim for it is a pain-filled stoicism on the part of Miss Tsukiokam and perhaps a little longing for dignity that the cancer strips away from her.

I don't like this movie. It is 110 minutes of tormenting an unhappy Miss Tsukiokam to no purpose except to urge acceptance of life's cruelties. But it certainly makes that point forthrightly.