I Will Buy You (1956)

I Will Buy You (Anata kaimasu)
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Written by Zenzo Matsuyama; story by Mirnoru Ono
1956/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/Hulu

[box] If you have a bad day in baseball, and start thinking about it, you will have 10 more. — Sammy Sosa [/box]

1956 seems to be a crossroads in Japanese cinema with more broadly socially conscious films being made.  Here Kobayashi progresses to the critical stance that would exemplify his later master works.

Goro Kurita is an extremely talented college home-run hitter.  Daisuke Kishimoto is a scout dead-set on sighing Kurita to the professional Tokyo Flowers team.  All the other teams in the league have the same idea.  Kurita is managed to within an inch of his life by the opportunistic Ippei Tamaki.  Tamaki has paid for Kurita’s college education and, at least in his opinion, made him the player he is.  Tamaki is now looking for a big pay off.

The story follows all the bribery and tricks employed by Kishimoto as he attempts to get the deal signed ahead of the other teams employing the same tactics. There are various twists and turns along the way.

If Kobayashi intended this to be a microcosm of Japanese society as a whole, he certainly took a very dim view of it.  I liked this one, especially the ending, which I was not expecting and which made the piece all the more scathing.