godgetsmepumped

A geisha marries a meek maker of bamboo dolls, but he won't have sex with her. Lonely and desperate, she sleeps with a former client and becomes pregnant. This haunting film is filled with repressed emotions and guilt in the best Japanese sense. Ayako Wakao carries the film and is supported by equally good performances from the great Ko Nishimura and Junichiro Yamashita. Director Yoshimura also made the sublime THE BALL AT THE ANJO HOUSE just after the war. Based on a novel by Tsutomu Minakami, who also wrote 'The Temple of Wild Geese.' This is an obscure, forgotten masterpiece. It's possible Yoshishige Yoshida and Akio Jissoji learned a lot from the style.

It's probably a tough subject for Americans to deal with: the Japanese war criminals of WWII. But it is a fact that the higher-ups got off easy while those of lower rank got the shaft. Such is the case of Toyomatsu Shimizu, a small-town barber who is drafted toward the end of the war and ordered by his superiors to kill a US POW with his bayonet. It turns out the POW is already dead, but Shimizu is sentenced to death anyway. We then follow his desperate attempts to get his sentence commuted. Furanki (Frankie) Sakai is an interesting choice for the lead role; I've only seen him in comic roles in other films. He does a superb job here. The director, Hashimoto, was primarily a writer. He co-wrote most of Kurosawa's films. His only other directorial effort was 'Lake of Illusions' in 1982. What this film may lack in style it makes up for in narrative and emotional power. It is absolutely heartbreaking. This is truly a forgotten Japanese classic. 10/10.

Yoshiko Kuga has an interesting role here -- an unmarried young woman, part tomboy, mostly rebel, and mentally... strange. I could not always understand the motives behind her actions. The plot is straight melodrama -- she takes up with a married man (the great Masayuki Mori) whose wife is also having an affair. And it is all presented in the most Western way. Orchestras swell, characters actually embrace and kiss (oh my), women are independent (although still destined for ruin), houses are Western-style, and characters even speak French and English phrases. Gosho ('Where Chimneys Are Seen') was a good director, but if I wanted a Hollywood melodrama, I would watch a Hollywood melodrama. I watch Japanese films for that undefinable Japaneseness. I don't watch them to see an imitation of what I'm trying to get away from. 6/10.