She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (1955)

She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (Nogiku no gotoki kimi nariki)
Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita
Written by Keisuke Kinoshita fram a novel by Sachio Ito
1955/Japan
Shôchiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu

[box] among my pitifully/ thatched eaves…/ a chrysanthemum — Haiku by Issa[/box]

This is a picturesque rural romance featuring Kinoshita’s standard buckets of tears.

An old man (Chisû Ryô) is being rowed back to the island where he grew up.  As he goes he reflects on the one true love of his life.  We segue into flashback where we spend most of the film.  Masao is a fifteen-year-old who is preparing to go off to the mainland for high school.  Tamiko is his seventeen-year-old cousin.  Masao’s family is better off than Tamiko’s and she  is more or less a servant in Masao’s household.  The two are inseparable.

Tamiko, however, is considered to be of marriageable age and Masao’s mother is determined that her boy will spend the next several years studying and will not be marrying her.  The rest of the family and the townsfolk are downright nasty and malicious in their gossip.  The young couple has a totally chaste relationship but Masao is beginning to develop feelings for Tamiko.  Mother sets out to break off the friendship resulting in the aforementioned tears.

The best part of this film for me was its observation of old-time Japanese rural culture and the beautiful scenery.  The score is also fantastic.  The story did not really grab me but it’s an OK doomed romance if you like that kind of thing.

Stills set to the beautiful music of the film