Tonkatsu taisho / Our Chief, Our Doctor

Yuzo Kawashima: とんかつ大将 / Tonkatsu taisho / Our Chief, Our Doctor (1952).

Yuzo Kawashima: とんかつ大将 / Tonkatsu taisho / Our Chief, Our Doctor (1952).

とんかつ大将 / Our Chief, Our Doctor.
    JP 1952. D: Yuzo Kawashima.
    Sog.: Tsuneo Tomita. Scen.: Yuzo Kawashima. F.: Toru Nishikawa. Scgf.: Seiichiro Sakai. Mus.: Chuji Kinoshita.
    Int.: Shuji Sano (Yusaku Araki), Etsuko Miyama (Shizuko, sua sorella), Keiko Tsushima (Mayumi Sada), Rieko Sumi (Kikue), Teiji Takahashi (Shuji, suo fratello), Shin Tokudaiji (Toshio Niwa), Michiko Ikuno (Tami, sua moglie).
    Prod.: Shochiku. 35 mm. D.: 95’. Bn.
    Songs: "Otoko no junjô" (lyr. Yaso Saijô, comp. Chûji Kinoshita), sung by Noboru Kirishima. "Akai keshi no uta" (lyr. Yaso Saijô, comp. Chûji Kinoshita), sung by Mariko Andô.
    Unreleased in Finland.
    Bologna: Il Cinema Ritrovato: Yuzo Kawashima: The Missing Link. Shochiku 100.
    Print: Shochiku Cinema.   
    In Japanese with English subtitles. E-subtitles in Italian by SubTi Londra.
    Introduce Alexander Jacoby.
    Viewed at Cinema Jolly, 25 Aug 2020.

Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020): "This entertaining film is one of the most celebrated of Kawashima’s period at Shochiku. It chronicles the experiences of a neighbourhood doctor, whose taste for tonkatsu (a popular Japanese dish, similar to a pork schnitzel) earns him the nickname ‘the pork cutlet prince’ (‘Tonkatsu Taisho’, the film’s Japanese title) from the affectionate residents of the tenement in which he lives. When a local hospital, run by a female doctor, plans to expand, the future of the tenement is called into question. The nagayamono (a generic term referring to the film’s tenement setting) was a staple of the prewar jidai-geki (period film), exemplified by such classics as Sadao Yamanaka’s Humanity and Paper Balloons (Ninjo kamifusen, 1937). As the “Kinema Junpo” reviewer, who was somewhat critical of the film as a whole, noted, Kawashima’s film is basically a jidai-geki nagayamono transported to a gendai-geki (contemporary) setting. The tenement location allows Kawashima to explore the fragile social and economic situation of the early postwar years. Kawashima himself commented that “From the very beginning, this one was a bit different” and admitted that the story had relatively little to do with tonkatsu. Although, in characteristically self-deprecating fashion, he dismissed the film as “a mere melodrama”, he also pointed to the vitality of the acting by Shuji Sano, Keiko Tsushima, Rieko Sumi, and others, who he said “were wonderfully alive as Shochiku’s top billed actors”. At the time, Sano, fresh from collaborations with Yasujiro Ozu and Keisuke Kinoshita, was experiencing a second wind in an acting career that had seen him first earn popularity as a matinee idol before World War II." Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström (Il Cinema Ritrovato 2020)

AA: A powerful community spirit is the dominant impression of Yuzo Kawashima's Tonkatsu taisho, known in English as Our Chief, Our Doctor, while the literal translation would be "Pork Cutlet Prince". The protagonist is the surgeon Yusaku Araki, an unorthodox but excellent doctor, a kindred soul to Akira Kurosawa's Red Beard in some ways. He is the local doctor of a poor but vibrant community, known for his weakness for pork cutlets.

When the movie starts, he lands on a collision course with the lady director and chief surgeon of the local hospital. The young lady has a haughty and superior attitude, while the self-effacing Araki runs a low profile. She wants to expand and build a dream hospital, but Araki is against it, because it would mean erasing the neighbourhood. They fight constantly, but a blind lady in the community senses that they love each other. "Love is blind", they say, but here, only the blind can tell love.

Nothing of the sort happens. Araki lives in the past, having lost during the war the love of his life, Tami. By coincidence there is a reunion. Tami now has a son and a husband, the very man whom Araki had asked to protect Tami while he was away. But it is not possible to turn back time. A friend tells Araki that "you don't understand women".

It turns out that Araki is the prodigal son of a family of the power elite: his father is the minister of commerce. Araki has consciously abandoned the power elite, but now his father is dying, and he must return to Osaka. Soon nothing will be like it used to be.

Meanwhile, Araki has revised his opinion about the lady hospital director, whose plans are funded by her powerful father. There had been a misunderstanding due to the machinations of the father's crooked lawyer with gangland connections: the lawyer had planned to sidetrack the project to build a big hostess bar. The lawyer gets a well-earned beating from Araki.

This is a film about the turning of the times. "Everybody felt lonely during those dark times" is the explanation why Tami had ceased to wait for Araki. Tonkatsu taisho is a melodrama, but the looks of pain and regret transcend expectations of light entertainment.

The spiritual union is coming apart. "We live in separate worlds". A furious fire destroys the buildings of the community, and perhaps it's arson. On the other hand, the blind woman regains her eyesight thanks to the guidance of Araki.

The feeling is deep in the finale as Araki walks away, and the camera tracks back. "My best memories remain in this alley". His friends take care that he is provided with a package of pork cutlets.