Wife! Be Like a Rose!
| Wife! Be Like a Rose! | |
|---|---|
_1.jpg) | |
| Directed by | Mikio Naruse |
| Written by |
|
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Hiroshi Suzuki |
| Edited by | Kôichi Iwashita |
| Music by | Noboru Itô |
Production company | P.C.L. |
| Distributed by | P.C.L. |
Release date |
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Running time | 74 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Wife! Be Like a Rose! a.k.a. Kimiko (Template:Lang-ja) is a 1935 Japanese comedy drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the shinpa play Futari tsuma (二人妻, lit. Two Wives) by Minoru Nakano[1][2] and one of Naruse's earliest sound films. Wife! Be Like a Rose! was one of the first Japanese films to see a theatrical release in the United States.[1][3][4]
Plot
Kimiko, a young modern Tokyo woman, lives alone with her poetress mother Etsuko. Etsuko still grieves for her former husband Shunsaku, who left the family for ex-geisha Oyuki fifteen years ago. Kimiko travels to the countryside to talk Shunsaku into returning to the family, as her boyfriend Seiji's father wants to meet him prior to his admittance of Kimiko's and Seiji's marriage. Contrary to her expectations, Shunsaku is happy with his new wife and their two children, and Oyuki turns out to be a warm-hearted person instead of the calculating woman Kimiko was sure to meet. Shunsaku agrees to go to Tokyo with Kimiko, but after a short time spent with his ex-wife, he returns to Oyuki and his children, while Kimiko finally accepts that the past can't be reversed.
Cast
- Sachiko Chiba as Kimiko Yamamoto
- Heihachirô Ôkawa as Seiji, Kimiko's boyfriend
- Yuriko Hanabusa as Oyuki
- Tomoko Itô as Etsuko, Kimiko's mother
- Setsuko Horikoshi as Shizuko, Oyuki's daughter
- Chikako Hosokawa as Shingo's wife
- Sadao Maruyama as Shunsaku, Kimiko's father
- Kaoru Itô as Kenichi, Oyuki's son
- Kamatari Fujiwara as Shingo, Etsuko's brother
Production and Legacy
Naruse had joined P.C.L. studios (soon to merge into Toho) only the year before, unhappy with the working conditions at his former studio Shochiku.[2] Wife! Be Like a Rose! received the 1936 Kinema Junpo Award as Best Film of the Year and opened in New York in 1937 under the title Kimiko.[1] Film historians have since emphasised the film's "sprightly, modern feel"[3] and "innovative visual style" and "progressive social attitudes".[5]
References
- ^ a b c d Galbraith IV, Stuart (2008). The Toho Studios Story: A History and Complete Filmography. Lanham, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6004-9.
- ^ a b Richie, Donald (2005). A Hundred Years of Japanese Film (Revised edition). Tokyo, New York, London: Kodansha International. ISBN 978-4-7700-2995-9.
- ^ a b "The best Japanese film of every year – from 1925 to now at the British Film Institute website". Retrieved 4 January 2021.
- ^ Russell, Catherine (2008). The Cinema of Naruse Mikio: Women and Japanese Modernity. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-4290-8.
- ^ Jacoby, Alexander (2008). Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors: From the Silent Era to the Present Day. Berkeley: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 978-1-933330-53-2.