Synopsis
On the eve of the Russo-Japanese war at the beginning of the 20th century, small-town girl Okane has married an old wealthy man to escape a life of poverty.
Seisaku's Wife
1965 ‘清作の妻’ Directed by Yasuzō Masumura
Cast
Ayako Wakao Takahiro Tamura Yūzō Hayakawa Shoichi Ozawa Yuka Konno Taiji Tonoyama Nobuo Chiba Noriko Hodaka Reiko Hoshikawa Takashi Nakamura Mikio Narita Koh Sugita Mantarō Ushio Tamae Kiyokawa Eiichi Takamura Hikaru Hoshi Jun Osanai Kisao Tobita Daigo Inoue Wakayo Matsumura Setsuko Kawasumi Hiroko Machida
Director
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Original Writer
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Cinematography
Lighting
Art Direction
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Alternative Titles
Seisaku no tsuma, La Femme de Seisaku, La mujer de Seisaku, 세이사쿠의 아내, 清作之妻
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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Japan
Releases by Country
Japan
25 Jun 1965
- Theatrical
Popular reviews
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"Thanks to you, I became a normal man." (!!!)
"Seisaku’s Wife" was quite a relentless, effective and remarkable movie, IMO.
It's also a remake -> letterboxd.com/film/seisaku-no-tsuma/The plot is quite deep going through several topics: poverty, prejudice, strict traditions, role of women, pro-war culture, "death over life" honor and such. I felt the pace and narrative were remarkably effective, the movie is almost seamless and to the point without ever dragging.
Ayako Wakao won a few awards for this role and rightfully so. She was quite haunting, at times. Takahiro Tamura, though a bit less "stellar", was also great on his part.
Writing was really good too. There's more than a few scenes and dialogues that are used to introduce/"comment"…
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Ayako Wakao's beauty overwhelmed me. Sometimes I forgot to follow the story because I was too busy staring at her beautiful face.
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The Movie is about Prejudice, Hypocrisy and Hatred.
And it all takes Place in a small Village before and during the
Japanese - Russian War.But mostly it's about Forgiveness,
Passion and ❤️LOVE❤️LOVE❤️ and
❤️LOVE❤️ and how it can become an Obsession, including not - so - good
Side Effects.So, FUCK the Villagers ( not all, but this one)
And to LEADING LADY Ayako Wakao :
This is now the sixth ( and definitely not the Last) Film I've seen with her and I'm liking her more and more.Seen on fsharetv.
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76/100
Good social commentary and typically grim stuff from Masumura. Things could have been better fleshed out but overall pretty effective. Ayako Wakao as always is brilliant. Ending is also quite beautiful. -
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"أوكاني، يقول أهل القرية أنكِ عاهرة وأني خائن؛ كلانا خائن. لن يرضوا عنا حتى نهاية العمر، لكن إن هاجرنا بعيدا عنهم سنتحرر منهم، سنكون غير مرئين، لكننا سنعيش حياتنا على هذه الأرض.. يوما ما في المستقبل، ونحن تحت الثرى، سيتفهم الناس أفعالنا"
عن طغيان الجماعية وتهميش الفرد، وعلاقة المجتمع بالفرد وأيهم يحتوي الآخر في سياقات معقدة. تضاد الرابطة المعقدة بين "الرول مودل" أو المثال والقدوة للمجتمع والمنبوذة البائسة التعيسة، هيكل ملائم جدًا وحسُن استغلاله في الأحداث وكتابة الشخصيات وحتى المشاهد الثانوية. رسوخ المفاهيم التقليدية في مجتمعات قروية وضح من خلال حوار سيساكو وأمه وأخته عن حساب أوكاني البنكي، حتى الإغراءات المالية لم تخفف من وطء هذه التقاليد.
حال سيساكو والخبل يرشده معبر جدا، كذلك مشهد تخيّله وأوكاني محبوسة تجرر الأغلال -
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This isn’t very far from Mizoguchi, although as expected of Masumura he puts more emphasis in how awful the people in the village are. Seisaku’s wife find many visual variations to make the weight of their vicious perceptions hard felt. Masumura is also very good at observe the main characters mutual attraction and as usual in their work together Ayako Wakao does some great things.
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Another bleak and brutal examination of female identity and repression but this time set within the Meiji Restoration. As well as female identity Masumura takes a gallon of petrol to the notion of blind patriotism, duty, social obligation & conformity, and delightfully throws a match on it as we watch the anger, passion exploded in a distributing moment of violence.
I do have to add in addition to the above, the ending is quite beautiful.
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The twist is sudden but it all makes sense in the end.Ayako Wakao is brilliant as always.One of those films which depicts mindset of human beings thru various stages.
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Part of my Japanese New Wave Top 200
Another Masumura-Wakao collaboration, another great film: that's just how it goes, it's a pairing which keeps on giving. This falls somewhere between Masumura's anti-war film Red Angel and the claustrophobic exploration of women's plight in a patriarchal system of A Wife Confesses. Thematically it's a very rich work, exploring how tightly controlling and totalizing social environments repress individuality. Wakao's performance is, I think, among her very best: most of the time she seems thoroughly defeated and exhausted by the unjust pressures put on her by society, but there are also tender scenes where she radiates of love. It has a genuinely shocking moment which is brilliantly realized on the screen, but which we must also thank Kaneto Shindō's excellent script for.