A year before his international breakout on THE BURMESE HARP/’56, a large-scale anti-war fable, Kon Ichikawa made this far more intimate piece, too inscrutably Japan-centric for travel but superb filmmaking in its own way. It’s 1912, and while the country is on edge as death approaches Emperor Meiji, what concerns us is a half-seen crisis between Nobuchi and his wife, the two haunted by miscommunication & tragic past events. She’s convinced he’s seeing a mistress; he’s possibly suicidal over something he won’t discuss. And that’s when he meets university student Hioki, the young man who jumps into the sea when he thinks Nobuchi has gone out too far. Perhaps. Soon, the two establish a warm relationship, sensei to pupil, Nobuchi something of a surrogate second father to Hioki whose actual father is dying on the same schedule as the Emperor. Alongside Hioki, we witness the oddly formal relationship between Nobuchi & his wife (oddly formal even for Japanese culture; does she even have a name in the film?), subtly emphasized by Ichikawa thru the use of Britishisms (black tea with milk; knives & forks at lunch). Returning from a trip to see his ill father (and to show off his diploma), he finds Nobuchi suddenly opening up about his past when he was living with fellow student Kaji at the home of his future wife and her widowed mother. Something of rivalry came between them, a certain amount of flirtation that led to Nobuchi suddenly proposing marriage and prompting a falling out between the men and four deaths before we reach the end. Ichikawa, rigorous and riveting, gives just enough motivation to show how this happens. Pulling back the curtains without losing the mystery.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, THE BURMESE HARP which you’d never expect came from the same filmmaker. A range typical of Ichikawa. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2011/07/biruma-no-tategoto-burmese-harp-1956.html
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: In addition to an immaculate filming technique, Ichikawa shows himself a master of the Japanese custom for using boxy rooms & sliding screen doors in homes as alternate framing & editing devices. Hollywood directors, working in Japan, occasionally figure out such framing strategies, but never seem to catch on to their functionality as quasi edits.
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