Ima hitotabi no

Ichirô Ryûzaki is an idealistic young doctor in the 1930s, with the war in Manchuria starting. He wants to take care of poor people, and when he goes to a high-class birthday party for Mieko Takamine, he's bored out of his mind. Nonetheless, she takes a shine to him, and comes to visit him at his clinic, where she's horrified by the suffering, and has to endure his contemptuous ramblings. Naturally, they fall madly in love, and her sister worries about her association with workers, who are so lacking in social graces. She seems to have become a communist. Fortunately, she badgers Miss Takamine into marrying Hyô Kitazawa, an artist and a member of their set.

They're miserable, Ryûzaki's miserable, and Kitazawa can't paint.

Heinosuke Gosho's movie about love and misery goes on for two hours in this vein. It's just the sort of thing that post-war Japan was in the mood for: beautiful clothes, lots of money, and absolute misery. Gosho worked successfully in a large variety of genres, from comedy to sheki gomin, and this hodge-podge of wealth, unrequited love and social conscience looks like a well made example of the 'suffering in mink' woman's movie. It's the sort of film that makes me wonder why they don't chuck it, but no one has the courage to do so.