Okayo no kakugo

Kinuyo Tanaka is a student and lieutenant at Kuniko Miyake's dance studio. The job calls for her to demonstrate dances, play the koto while instructing the pupils, take care of Miss Miyake's child -- her husband is at war -- and go to the market for toothbrushes. She has fallen in love with Ken Uehara, and is devastated to learn he has made a society marriage.

Yasujirô Shimazu's film is not simply a vehicle for Miss Tanaka, who shows the good-mannered reticence considered maidenly, weeps charmingly and dances exquisitely. It is a harbinger movie, showing bits and pieces that would become familiar in world cinema in the coming decades. There are long takes of conversation in middle long shots from the level of the tatami mat, with a teapot in the foreground, like Ozu's signature shot in the 1950s and 1960s; there is good humor; there is Miss Tanaka playing the koto while a student, who has just informed her of Uehara's engagement, dances under her instruction; and there is a long tragic fantasy dance sequence near the end, while she strives to entertain a child while Uehara's wedding takes place, like AN AMERICAN IN PARIS.

As a vehicle to show off Miss Tanaka's charms, it is excellent. As an example of cinema, it is superb.

"Okayo no kakugo" (or Okayo's preparedness, as it seems to have been translated), is an hour-long drama by director Shimazu Yasujiro. Tanaka Kinuyo plays the title role, a promising pupil of a famous dance school led by Osumi (Miyake Kuniko). Besides learning to dance, Okayo has somehow become a sort of a maid in Osumi's house, and a third-rate family member too. It's a confusing little Cinderella scenario. Through Osumi, Okayo meets the handsome Shunsaku (Uehara Ken) and falls for him madly, but this love is one-sided because of class difference between them.

The film is fairly simply put together. We only get out of the main setting of the dance school once, which could be a thematic solution made in order to establish Okayo's dull everyday experience. Then again it might just as well be an economic solution, since it looks like Shimazu canned this film pretty fast. Possibly in a week. What saves this movie from mediocrity is Tanaka's performance, as is the case with so many films. She is tender and shy, youthful and fragile, but manages to grow an arc as a character.

The film places value for women having careers, although dancing might be a stereotypically feminine career path. The film also places value on military service, as Osumi is shown to be proud of her husband, who is serving in the war effort. The short running time makes it easy to watch, although it might be hard for western viewers to evaluate, when the dancing in the film is supposed to be good in the purposes of the narrative. The same problem is evident in some of Naruse's 1930's films depicting traditional Japanese artists.