"Tsuma" (Wife, 1953) is a very recognizable work from Naruse Mikio, not only because of its simplistic title. The director had lately made two other films about failing marriages, "Meshi" (Repast, 1951) and "Fûfu" (Husband and Wife, 1953) and the subject would come up time and time again in his subsequent films. It was a personal one for him, as his own marriage too had met a somber ending.
Like many of Naruse's more mediocre films, "Tsuma" has some tonal problems. The film starts off very casually, even comically, and we get to hear the thoughts of our married couple, played by the talented duo of Takamine Mieko and Uehara Ken. They've been married for several years now, and it has gradually grown from a joy into a burden. They don't have children, and the wife has very little to do. All around them the marriages of their friends seem to be falling apart too.
I think "Tsuma" has more potential that "Fûfu" did, but it doesn't grow into an emotional experience like "Meshi", which is clearly the best of the three. The beginning seems sloppy and doesn't frame the marital crisis as serious enough. The second half is more solid, but by then the character work seems to be drifting because it wasn't laid out well in the first place. Naruse's view of married life is very cynical. He does not believe in love and happiness, and is much more interested in showing his audience the stagnation and the boredom, as well as the quietly escalating conflicts. This would all be well and good, if the screenplay was more precise and the tone consistent.
Here, as often in happens in his films, Naruse offers no conclusions and no finality, which I liked. I just happen to think that this particular film did not do a great job to make the audience care about this particular marriage, despite the great actors involved.
