Roslindale Monogatari

Jirô monogatari / Jiro's Story (Hiroshi Shimizu, 1955) This Shimizu's film was the second (of four, so far) screen adaptation of a semi-autobiographical book (set in the 1890s) by noted educator Kojin Shimomura. It depicts the travails of Jiro (Yukihiro Ozawa, through most of the film), the youngest son of a well-to-do and eminent provincial merchant family. Due to the illness of his mother (Ranko Hanai) after he was born, he was sent to live with the family of his nurse (Yuko Mochizuki). At age seven or so, he is called home to rejoin his family (parents, siblings, grandparents), who are all virtual strangers to him. He finds it hard to adjust to his new circumstances -- and escapes to his old home. He is also finally introduced to the joys of attending school. The film traces the vicissitudes of the family -- the illness and death of the grandfather, bankruptcy of the family business, death of the mother (to whom Jiro eventually became quite attached) and the re-marriage...

Sakuran (Mika Ninagawa, 2006) This film recounts the story of a high class prostitute (called an oiran ) starting with her childhood (when she is sold to a brothel in the Yoshiwara district of Tokyo) through her rise to the top tier of her profession over the course of the next ten years or so. The time period is not specified, but the events here have to have taken place no later than the beginning of the 1700s (because by mid-century oiran had largely died out, having replaced by geisha ). Our heroine (played as a young woman by Anna Tsuchiya) is reasonably engaging -- but the story (based on a manga by Moyoco Anno, wife of Evangelion director Hideko Anno) is more than a little problematic. First, there is a matter of authenticity, While not so spurious as the Hollywood confection Memoirs of a Geisha , it nonetheless presents a depiction that has only a tangential connection to historical reality. The highest level oiran apparently operated at a level of rarefied sophisticati...

Himitsu no hanazono / My Secret Cache (Shinobu Yaguchi, 1997) A young girl named Sakiko is fascinated with money (and counting money) -- and her obsession continues unabated throughout high school. On graduation, she decides that working as a bank clerk might be a perfect job -- but soon finds that counting other people's money is not a lot of fun. She wishes for more excitement and -- as if on demand -- her bank is robbed and she is carried off as a hostage (thrown in the trunk, along with a yellow suit case full of cash). To elude pursuit, the bank robbers go into the wilderness -- and crash the car. Only Sakiko and the suitcase survive -- as they are thrown out of the car (and into a sinkhole) before the car explodes. After a wild watery ride, using the suitcase as a flotation device -- the girl and her money are parted. She survives her ordeal (just barely), but now is obsessed with finding the suitcase full of yen notes. Sakiko now finally has a purpose in life -- and s...

Akibiyori / Late Autumn (Yasujiro Ozu, 1960) In this film, Ozu re-visits the theme of Late Spring , telling the story of a single parent and an only daughter. Here, however, Setsuko Hara plays the parent rather than the child (in one of the few roles where she played a character somewhat older than her real age). Her daughter (played by Yoko Tsukasa) is not strongly averse to marriage in principle -- but doesn't feel any urgency either. Nonetheless, as a lark (more or less), three of her late father's old buddies (Shin Saburi, Nobuo Nakamura and Ryuji KIta) decide to get her married off. When it turns out that she is reluctant to consider marriage due to concern over leaving her mother on her own, they also begin plotting to get her mother to re-marry. Ironically, they needn't have bothered, as Tsukasa meets someone (Keiji Sada) who catches her fancy through the good offices of one of her colleagues at work (who turns out to be the same person as Shin Saburi's p...