[KineJapan] Winter Films - Otto no teisō

Wed Jan 6 12:06:17 EST 2021

Thank you, María-José, it gets richer and richer. Pic.3, ofcourse, includes TAKAMINE Hideko – who, in four years, will be pulling theaforementioned A.D. whilst making Uma in the snowy wastes of Hokkaido.

Anything I know about Yoshiya’s novel comes from Michiko Suzuki’s articlein Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/667198. When she kindly fielded my enquiry back in November, she said that “I don’t recall the novel as presenting thetwo female characters as being similar in looks”. Perhaps I asked thewrong question but it looks to me that it is the filmmakers (I don’t think wehave yet given a mention to director YAMAMOTO Kajirō)who played up the similarities. She also answered that she was not aware ofanyone working on a translation.

Roger

    On Wednesday, 6 January 2021, 14:36:45 GMT, Maria Jose Gonzalez via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  

  Dear Roger,

1937!What a fascinating Irie year!You poise an interesting question.The long suffering Irie would usually have as "rivals" on the screen actresses like, for example, Edogawa Ranko or Tsutsumi Masako, who incidentally appears as Teruko in this film. There are exceptions, such as Yukiko and Natsuyo (1941) with Yamada Isuzu, although this story lacks the romantic conflict of Otto no teisō.Irie Takako was of course not only the most famous of the two but also the one involved in the cinema business in various ways, family included.However, as you mention, there are certain similarities. Interestingly, even more so for contemporary Japanese spectators that cannot really grasp why the husband gets embroiled in this mess considering that his wife and her friend are so alike and both terribly appealing, not to mention that the husband can be a rather colourless character that sometimes seems to work in an almost Mizoguchi-esque way as plot device, albeit a popular and handsome one.Unfortunately, I have not read the book and cannot comment on this aspect but I wonder if Kayo and Kuniko represent two sides of the same coin and the husband's chastity is in fact a greedy struggle of desire to have both women and their subtle differences condensed in a single one, like spring and autumn together.
The "conflict" extends to music and song in the records released for this film:- Kuniko's Song (sung by Chiba Sakiko herself):  https://youtu.be/4iybsn6if2g
- Kayo's Song (sung by... Edogawa Ranko!):   https://youtu.be/V7SulCySo40(Words for Kayos' Song, here: https://youtu.be/WVhQwxiyA0c)As mentioned in one of the photos I attached yesterday, writer Yoshiya Nobuko was terribly upset with the film not being more faithful to her story but the lyrics for these two songs are hers.Attached, a few more pix from 主婦之友 Shufu no Tomo (1937).
María- José González MuñozKwansei Gakuin University

    On Tuesday, 5 January 2021, 11:55:42 pm GMT+9, Roger Macy via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  

Thank you for your generous response, Maria – and thank youfor the correction !

Of course, Chiba Sachiko played Kuniko, close friend of Kayoand on whom Kuniko’s husband and Kayo cheated upon. As I understand it, the hithertochildless Kuniko, in the unfilmed second half, becomes the arranger of herfriend’s new marriage.
Please forgive my dyslexia which even extends to faces somewhat. It maybe some while (as Oates once said) in working through your material.  But is my confusion purely that of an ignorantwesterner ? Aren’t the filmmakers playing up a similarity – Persona avant la lettre ?  See two more attached pics.Roger

    On Tuesday, 5 January 2021, 13:24:04 GMT, Maria Jose Gonzalez via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  

  Dear Roger,I suppose you mean that the character in the attached frames is Irie Takako.;-)Did you also get the wonderful booklet that accompanies all the Kurosawa DVD Collection series by Asahi?I am attaching some photos just in case, as it offers some more clues as to why there was no continuation.  
Also attached, an image of KineJun from 1937.It is a pity that at least over 60 minutes are missing from this consolidated version, we don't get to see some of the actors mentioned in the credits.However, we are very lucky to have this fantastic Kurosawa series, some of the titles are true gems.Best wishes,
María José GonzálezKwansei Gakuin University

    On Tuesday, 5 January 2021, 2:02:13 am GMT+9, Roger Macy via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  

Sorry that you got two link corrections together, yesterday.

It is an unexpected list – I hadn’t even heard of the last director,KURODA Yoshiyuki. But it’s also an over-promising list.  Most, but not all, have been shown in thehistory of the National Film Theatre but I think only the Kurosawa has beenshown this millennium. Several are also not available to view legitimately inthe UK,including a couple on Criterion Channel which is not available in the UK.

But I like your suggestion,Markus, of pondering over such a list, sitting here with winter lockdownseeming to extend indefinitely. We could keep this simmering on the kamado formonths.  ‘Winter’ films could be dividedinto those that are set entirely in winter and those which have memorablewinter scenes. Feeling pessimistic, this side of the pond, I’m offering onewhere spring never came.

After reading last year thetranslated novel The Little House, by NAKAJIMA Kyoko in which the narrator goes to see Otto no teisō(A Husband’s Chastity), 1937 (setting the novel of YOSHIYA Nobuko – she of Scent of Pheasant’s Eye and best-sellingauthor of the ‘flower stories’), I noticed that a DVD could be bought. The DVDwas packaged as ‘Kurosawa Akira #65’, tenuously as he was 3rd A.D., and as 総集編 Sōshū-hen, i.e., the consolidated version of104 minutes. JMDb listed the two parts released in April .37, as ‘When SpringComes’ and ‘Autumn Comes Again’.

Alas, when I watched it, it ended in bleak mid-winter (attachedframe-grabs). What’s more, no one had reached any kind of nirvana or chastity,only just starting to smart from a lack of it. With help from Johan Nordström (he on PCL) and Michiko Suzuki(she on Yoshiya’s book), I established that the first two films only coveredthe first half of the novel and the rest was never made. The character in thepicture, the young widow Kayo, has been excluded from her legitimate child, butdoes she even ‘know’ that she’s pregnant – the window to her redemption in thesecond half ? (I think I can dispense with spoiler-warnings).

There’s a strong clue as to why it was never concluded. A short pause inserializing was normal, and the story needed setting in the Philippinesor re-set elsewhere (Manchuria?).The actress in thepicture, Chiba Sachiko, however made no films for eighteen months for anyone. Iknow that Chiba married NaruseMikio in 1937 and that there was a child by this short marriage. So, wasNaruse’s filmmaking winter in the 1940s because he took some of the blame forthis unconcluded winter ?

Anyway, here’s for spring in real life.
Roger

    On Sunday, 3 January 2021, 15:36:22 GMT, Michael Kerpan via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:  

 Markus --

Your link didn't work -- but hopefully this will.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-japanese-winter-films

Michael KerpanBoston, MA
On Sun, Jan 3, 2021 at 10:30 AM Markus Nornes via KineJapan <kinejapan at mailman.yale.edu> wrote:

Now here’s a delightfully unexpected list!
https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-japanese-winter
So many other films rush to mind, starting with....Yukiguni (either the ‘57 Toyota film or the prewar bunka eiga, take your pick)!

M 
-- 
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Markus NornesProfessor of Asian CinemaDepartment of Film, Television and Media, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, Penny Stamps School of Art & Design
Department of Film, Television and Media6348 North Quad105 S. State StreetAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1285
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