Wedding Ring (1950)

Wedding Ring (Konyaku yubiwa)
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita
Written by Keisuke Kinoshita
1950/Japan
Kinuyo Tanaka Productions/Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu

[box] “Oh! how many torments lie in the small circle of a wedding ring.” — Colley Cibber[/box]

There’s some good acting here but the story sort of overstayed its welcome.

Michio Kuki has been very ill with TB for some time.  He is cared for in his wealthy father’s home near the sea.    His wife Noriko (Kinuyo Tanaka) runs the family’s dress shop business in Tokyo and visits only on weekends.  One day, Michio’s doctor is replaced by the handsome young Dr.  Ema (Toshiro Mifune).  The doctor must make regular house calls to drain his patient’s lungs.

Michio and his wife have not been intimate since he fell ill.  Noriko begins to have an overpowering physical attraction to Dr Ema and her passion is reciprocated.  The two spend the rest of the film trying to do the right thing despite themselves.

With two great actors in the lead, this can’t help being interesting.  However, this kind of unconsummated love affair isn’t really enough to sustain a feature length film .  The couple face the same dilemma over and over again as they can’t seem to keep apart.  Tanaka spends most of the film crying and Mifune even succumbs at one point.  Brief Encounter this isn’t.