Kanzashi

Hiroshi Shimizu's films have some sort of languishing energy that can be described as elegiac, mournful, or melancholic. This, as whimsical as it is, too cannot escape from such sorrow.

The story sets in a small inn where almost everyone wants to know everybody's private business. When Chishu Ryu hurt his foot accidentally (or rather poetically) by a stranger's ornamental hairpin, the rest of the inn dwellers expect a love story to happen immediately. Nonetheless, life is often not that predictable.

Eventually, every meeting ends with a bittersweet farewell. The problem is we never know when. To leave or to meet again lies on the palms of our hands, they say, but when a person is tied to their own fate, this kind of decision are deceptively simple because they can be hard to make. I suppose this is what most of us would call real life.

Viewed on DVD. Poor restoration. Warm, engaging, funny, and often hilarious! Yet another ("restored") film by director Hiroshi Shimizu that leaves the viewer wishing that things could have gone on a bit longer. The measure of not only a great director, but also a master showman! The extremes to which a group (including the "victim" of the hat pin "attack"--he stepped on it in a shallow pool) at a summer spa (all guests seem to be there because of discounted rates) will go to in order to see what the owner of the pin looks like are something to behold. And what the victim does to court the hair pin owner (even resorting to crutches to generate symphony) is fall-down funny. A typical Shimizu slice of life movie with many possible outcomes all left, as usual, to the viewer's imagination/contemplation. Cinematography is OK except for out-of-focus and over-exposed outdoor scenes that start the film off (given the jerky camera movements, it looks like tracking was not used, and the scenes were simply shot from a car trunk or the back of a truck). End-to-end dubbing is primitive with effects sounds especially artificial. Why the juvenile actors are dubbed as always SHOUTING their lines remains a distracting/grating mystery. Continuity suffers when characters say something has taken place, but subsequent scenes show otherwise. Score is written and performed at the level of, say, a grade school band--it's simply terrible and an embarrassing distraction. Acting is fine as are the subtitles. Restoration remains a work in progress as far as cleaning up over exposures, visible deterioration, and especially the audio. Sound artifacts are ever present. A fine film that rises above the primitive techniques employed in its manufacture and the marginal restoration presented on this disc. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

This film takes place at an inn in Japan in summer where people are going for rest and relaxation. Basically, the film is about Mr. Nanmura, who is played by the great actor Chishu Ryu, looking much younger than he usually does in Ozu films. While in the hot springs, he is injured in the foot after stepping on an ornamental hairpin. The owner of the hairpin is Emi, who comes back to the inn to apologize. The men there wonder if she is beautiful. She arrives. She is played by Kinuyo Tanaka, the great actress who is best known for her roles in Kenji Mizoguchi films and was indeed beautiful. She stays at the inn and a relationship blossoms between Emi and Mr. Nanmura. Will it last? I have never seen a movie from this director, as outside of Japan he is not as well known as Kurosawa, Naruse and the aforementioned Ozu and Mizoguchi. However, he does a great job here moving the story along. You want to know what happens. The pairing of Chishu Ryu and Kinuyo Tanaka is a dream one, they are excellent in this film. The film is subtle but compelling. This film is being sold as part of a four DVD box of the director's film, and this was the first one I watched. Based on this film alone it was money well spent.

Well, overall, the Hiroshi Shimizu Eclipse set has been a bust for me. If you really desire to check it out, I suggest renting The Masseurs and a Woman. That's the only really good film in the set. Mr. Thank You is okay. The other two films, Japanese Girls at the Harbor and this one, are not bad, but both are kind of middling. Ornamental Hairpin feels kind of like a repeat of The Masseurs and a Woman. It also takes place at a resort spa, and has much the same kind of bittersweet romance. This one feels a lot thinner to me. Chishu Ryu (not recognizable) plays a soldier who steps on an ornamental hairpin while in the bath. The people around him are upset at his injury. He just hopes that the hairpin belongs to a beautiful woman. It does (Kinuyo Tanaka, of Ugetsu, Sansho the Bailiff and The Life of Oharu), and she comes back to the spa in person to apologize. A romance kind of sparks, but both parties are too shy to go for it. Most of the movie is comprised of the soldier exercising in order to get his foot into working condition (which makes no sense, honestly) while two children constantly shout at him in encouragement, with Tanaka shyly watching on. There are a bunch of other characters around the resort, too, but, except for maybe a cantankerous professor (Tatsuo Saito, who starred in I Was Born, But...), they don't really come off as anything besides poorly sketched caricatures. The film is also so vague at times that I was unsure of who some of the characters were (the two kids frequently seem like gamins who are just running around the spa, not belonging to anybody in particular). Chishu Ryu is so underdeveloped it's hard to really care whether he hooks up with Tanaka or not. It is often very pretty, of course, and there are a handful of very good sequences.

Shimizu explores the finiteness of time, yet gets you to recognize both the joy and sadness of it. Time manifests itself in a few different ways. You have the backdrop of soldier Nanmura on a short leave from the Pacific War, varied characters staying at the resort for the time being, the inevitably of Emi's uncertain future hanging over her, and the spa gradually emptying out as the occupants depart throughout the film. Nanmura's injury from the titular hairpin is the clear emotional core. Being the MacGuffin which holds Nanmura and Emi together, its presence also proves finite. With each day Nanmura's condition improves and with each trial he completes, one can feel each minute of his time at the spa running out since there's nowhere for him to go but forward. In less talented hands, this film could've just been a tragedy, but I was surprised as to how much humor and lightness Shimizu brought to the film. We have the adults keeping each other awake with their snoring, a professor constantly seeking a masseur, the children cheering Nanmura on throughout his trials, and the newfound love and family Emi finds through Nanmura and several characters. There's no telling what the future may bring, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself in the present. I also find it interesting how the entire main conflict is set off by something so insignificant - a single hairpin left on the ground. It creates a sense of escalation and makes the thematic richness all the more noteworthy given how slight the film should've otherwise been. Phenomenal ending, by the way. Overall, this was far more interesting than it had the right to be and more people should check it out.