Hideko Takamine spoils her fatherless child. Even her Yakuza brother tells her that. So she is devastated when he is run over in a traffic accident. The driver was Yôko Tsukasa, but she sped on when she thought the child was all right, because she was in the car with her lover. However, when she gets home, she discovers blood on the front bumper. She wants to confess, but her husband, Eitarô Ozawa, is about to be promoted to company president. He bribes a staff driver to take the blame, arranges to pay 1.2 million yen to Miss Takamine. The driver gets a 30,000 yen fine -- about $100 in contemporary money.
Miss Takamine finds out it was a woman who was driving, realizes it was Miss Tsukasa. She changes her name, goes to working for an agency and soon is working in the lady's household. She fantasizes about killing Miss Tsukasa's boy, about killing Miss Tsukasa. Miss Tsukasa has nightmares, her boyfriend is leaving the country, and she realizes that her entire marriage is a mistake.
It's not the sort of movie one associates Miss Takamine with, nor the director, Mikio Naruse, nor the writer, Zenzô Matsuyama -- although the sharply written characters are certainly in his line. The suffering of the women is typical of Naruse, and that makes it a little more typical for the director, although the situations are offbeat for him.
It's a very good film, as you would expect with the talent, even if it is not what one would expect of any of them.
