Nyonin aishu / A Woman’s Sorrows

 

Mikio Naruse: 女人哀愁 / Nyonin aishu / A Woman’s Sorrows (JP 1937). Salesladies at the record store: Hiroko Kawano (Takako Irie) and Kazuko (Chizuko Kanda).

女人哀愁 / [I dolori di una donna] / Les Larmes d'une femme.

    JP (Empire of Japan) 1937. PC: P.C.L.

    Director: Mikio Naruse. Scen.: Mikio Naruse, Chikao Tanaka. F.: Mitsuo Miura. M.: Koichi Iwashita. Scgf.: Masao Totsuka. Mus.: Yoshi Eguchi. Int.: Takako Irie (Hiroko Kawano), Hideo Saeki (Masao), Masako Tsutsumi (Yoshiko), Ko Mihashi (Hiroko’s father), Namiko Hatsuse (Hiroko’s mother), Hideo Saeki (Ryosuke Kitamura), Hyo Kitazawa (Shinichi Horie), Tamae Kiyokawa (Shinichi’mother), Ranko Sawa (Yoko Horie), Heihachiro Ogawa (Toshio Masuda).

    [Nyonin aishu theme song] (Yoshi Eguchi, 1937?) sung during opening credits and repeated during the movie. Not translated. n.c.

    "When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley" (words and music by Joe Lyons, Sam C. Hart and The Vagabonds: Herald Goodman, Curt Poulton, Dean Upson, 1933) / "Kodin kynttilät" in Finland. [Instrumental version in the movie] n.c.

    "West End Blues" (Joe "King" Oliver, 1928) perf. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five (1928). [Another version in the movie] n.c.

    "Blue Moon" (comp. Richard Rodgers, lyr. Lorenz Hart, 1934) [Instrumental in the movie]. n.c.

    74 min

    35 mm print from the National Film Archive of Japan

    Courtesy of Toho.

    Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna 2025: Sorrow and Passion: Pre-War Mikio Naruse.

    Viewed with e-subtitles in English and Italian by SubTi Londra at Cinema Jolly, 22 June 2025.

 Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström (Bologna 2025): "One of the finest and most trenchantly feminist of Naruse’s early films, Nyonin aishu brilliantly dissects the situation and feelings of a woman forced into an unhappy and stifling arranged marriage to a man from a wealthy family. Its power and intensity derive in part from Naruse’s sympathetic direction, in part from the touching star performance of lead actress Takako Irie (1911-95). A diva of the Japanese silent cinema, Irie had established her own independent production company in 1932; this was its first collaboration with P.C.L."

"Naruse co-wrote the screenplay with Chikao Tanaka (1905-95), whose wife Sumie was eventually to become Japan’s most famous female screenwriter and to furnish the scripts for many of Naruse’s most celebrated postwar films. Indeed, with its engrossing combination of bleakness and hope, the tone of the film closely resembles that of Naruse’s later work. The film’s distinguished cinematographer, Mitsuo Miura (1902-56), had visited Hollywood in 1928 and was influenced by Josef von Sternberg. He had shot Naruse’s earliest extant film, Koshiben ganbare (Flunky, Work Hard!, 1931), and was to lens Kafuku later in 1937."

"In a book on Japanese film directors published in the year of the film’s release, critic Kyoichi Otsuka described the film as a return to form for both Naruse and Irie, praising it for its “depth and authenticity”, and observing that Irie was “the perfect choice for the role”. “Kinema Junpo” critic Seiji Mizumachi likewise praised Irie’s performance as the best of her career since the coming of sound cinema. More recently, Tetsuya Hirano has saluted Naruse’s “brilliant” direction, commenting on “the fast-paced scene changes at the beginning and his signature outdoor scenes”. Susanne Schermann compares the film’s focus on the independence of a married woman with Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, while Catherine Russell calls the film “one of the most damning critiques of women’s social roles to be found in pre-war Japanese cinema”." Alexander Jacoby e Johan Nordström (Bologna 2025)

AA: Mikio Naruse's A Woman's Sorrows is a family drama and multi-character study focusing on the parallel destinies of two young couples in love.

It starts with establishing images of modern urban Tokyo full of life and energy. It is a tale of turbulence between tradition and modernity through generations, families, class and gender. The protagonist is Hiroko Kawano, a traditional, conservative and deferential woman, played by the great actress Takako Irie. Starring in a parallel drama is Yoko Horie, a modern, defiant and independent woman, played by Ranko Sawa.

Hiroko as the oldest daughter of the Kawano family has to defer to the omiai. Obeying her mother's wish she has to marry Shinichi Horie (Hyo Kitazawa), born to wealth and privilege, and renounce her secret love to her cousin Ryosuke Kitamura (Hideo Saeki).

Yoko, the eldest daughter of the Horie family, has entered a love union with her fiancé Masuda (Heihachiro Okawa) but has returned to the family fold as Masuda is unable to support her. Masuda is undaunted and keeps asking to see Yoko, but is unceremoniusly thrown out. "He is not brave enough for me". The Hories are a combative family, and the sisters and the brothers are in a habit of fighting each other.

Meanwhile, Hiroko has second thoughts. Although she is a conservative woman, "I cannot live like a doll", in a status somewhere between the lady of the house and an unpaid servant whom everybody can boss around. She is an outsider and stranger in her own family whose members consider themselves better than others. Hiroko is not even invited to the all-important all-family mahjong game.

In the turbulent transition from tradition to modernity, men want to spend their evenings in freedom in modern urban spaces such as Ginza bars, while women are expected to wear traditional dress and conduct subordinate chores.

As observed by Suzanne Scherman, Hiroko makes the Nora decision of Ibsen's The Doll's House: she leaves. What is the alternative? "I'll search for it until I find out". She rejects marriage altogether. "I want to stand on my own." "I see something more important than myself".

As for Yoko, she returns to Masuda, who has committed a serious crime, stealing from his company "to prove myself worthy of her".

Naruse's mise-en-scène is excellent, now also including a command of sound. He keeps the actions of the multiple characters in the Horie home well in hand. The sound of dialogues from different rooms expands the sense of space.

Like in Naruse's first sound film, Three Sisters and Maiden Hearts, there is a lot of music, and the contrast of (Japanese) tradition and (Western) modernity is expressed also via the soundtrack. Before marriage, Hiroko works as a saleslady at a record store, which helps further justify the presence of the songs.

But A Woman's Sorrows is also a masterpiece of visual storytelling. Naruse was one of the keepers of "the great secret" of silent cinema. See the extraordinary sequence at the photographer's studio where Hiroko and Shinichi have their wedding photograph taken. See the eloquent close-ups of Takako Irie which are silent monologues in facial expressions. See the wonderful panoramic shots from the balcony over Tokyo where life decisions are discussed. Birds in flight are a recurrent motif.

In Three Sisters and Maiden Hearts I missed transcendence. A Woman's Sorrows is a story of solitude, sorrow and pain - and rebellion, defiance and transcendence.

A 35 mm print with good definition and good black levels, at times with slightly soft edges.