"They didn't hold hands, but they desperately wanted to."
I just love Hideko Takemine in this film. She plays Mariko, the plucky younger Munekata sister who likes baseball more than temples, sticks her tongue out when she hears something she doesn't like, smokes from time to time, and speaks her mind freely about things she's frustrated with. She represents shifting cultural values and a more outspoken generation of younger women, which was really nice to see, particularly as it gave such life to this film.
Her older sister is Setsuko (Kinuyo Tanaka), who is devoted to her husband (So Yamamura) despite the fact that he's a lazy, unemployed drunk. She runs a bar, but is struggling to stay afloat financially, and moreover, has discovered that her father (Chishu Ryu) has less than a year to live. She was actually romantically interested in another man 15 years previously, Hiroshi (Ken Uehara), but only realized the depth of feelings when she got engaged, and he'd already gone away to France.
Well, Hiroshi is now back, which sets in motion a melodrama, as Mariko begins developing feelings for him, Setsuko's husband begins suspecting that his wife may be having an affair with him, and there is a third woman in the picture as well, a friend he made while in France (Sanae Takasugi). Having read her sister's old diary, Mariko would actually love for Setsuko and Hiroshi to be together, but can't help herself from playfully flirting with him too (and at one point, outright proposing to him, I mean, how the hell did he resist that?). Meanwhile, the husband is quite a tool, coolly (and unfairly) judging his wife while stroking a cat, and slapping her hard across the face seven times in case we couldn't hate him more.
It's often difficult to arrive at a satisfactory ending in such film, as emotionally we know what we want, but that path could be viewed as formulaic and not very artistic. I have to say, the route Ozu chose here wasn't very satisfying to me either, and I was almost tempted to reduce my review score, but had enjoyed it up until that point.
Some of the better scenes are when the sisters debate one another, even if it is expository, such as when Mariko questions her sister's marriage and Setsuko replies, "You're too young ... to understand marriage. It's not always a good time. Holding back is what keeps us going. That's how it is," to which Mariko says bluntly, "Then marriage is stupid." After Mariko has referred to her as outdated, Setsuko chastises her: "What doesn't become outdated is up-to-date. Things that are truly up-to-date are those that never get old. ... Your idea of up-to-date is skirt lengths going from long to short. If everyone has red nails, yours absolutely must be red too, no?"
With the ensuing tolerant fatherly advice for both young women to be themselves and how Setsuko's husband ultimately treats her, it seems there is a progressive message here, which I really enjoyed seeing from Ozu. Through signs we often see in English, including one for Coca Cola, he's reminding us of a changing world in Japan, but seeming to say that somehow it's going to be alright. Meanwhile in transitions between scenes, he gives us beautifully composed images, like clouds floating over hills or trains trundling by, the world impassive to the drama of these little lives.
It's Takemine's film, however. Her character is full of vitality, at times pretending to be a pompous narrator of romantic scenes, acting as a ballerina she's just seen, giving birdcalls to a nightingale with her father, or dancing around the room after tricking the other woman into thinking Hiroshi's left. She's played beautifully played by Takemine, who I'd watch in just about anything.
