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. Like many of Naruse's more mediocre films, "Tsuma" has some tonal problems. It was a personal one for him, as his own marriage too had met a somber ending. 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. "Tsuma" (Wife, 1953) is a very recognizable work from Naruse Mikio, not only because of its simplistic title. Reviewed by topitimo-829-270459 6 / 10 Marriage equals stability? Think again. Things for their marriage get worse when Toichi starts to fall for his work colleague, widowed Fusako Sagara, who returns his affections. Both are seemingly oblivious to the fact that others around them are facing similar if not worse situations, and that they themselves are largely the cause of their unhappiness. Mihiko in particular, old fashioned in her outlook, does not see divorce as an option, that move which would be a stigma she could not tolerate. Each knows the other isn't happy, they themselves aren't happy, but they don't talk about their problems with each other, each festering in their unhappiness largely so that they will not show especially to their three boarders their problems. Mihoko and Toichi Nakagawa's ten year marriage is crumbling out of inertia.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |