Hibari, Chiemi, Izumi: Sannin yoreba

Hibari Misora, Chiemi Eri and Izumi Yukimura had previously starred as teenagers, under the label Sannin Musume (Three Girls), in three color musicals produced by Toho Pictures from 1955-1957. In this one, HIBARI CHIEMI IZUMI SANNIN YOREBA (1964), they're all 26 years old and established in careers and, presumably, looking for husbands. There is far less of the youthful energy they gave off in the earlier films and far fewer musical numbers. (For the record, I reviewed all three of the earlier ones for IMDb: JANKEN MUSUME, 1955, ROMANCE MUSUME, 1956, and ON WINGS OF LOVE, 1957.) What we do see here is their engagement in their professions: Chiemi works with an all-male crew at a TV station and her cameraman is her frequent after-hours companion; Izumi runs a beauty salon and manages a large staff; Hibari answers the telephones in between other duties at what seems to be a hotel, although I couldn't be quite sure. The lack of English subtitles on the DVD I watched means that most key plot details are a mystery to me. But the widescreen Eastmancolor photography is beautiful, the sets are lavish, and the girls are gorgeous and decked out in a variety of lovely costumes and hairstyles. With a 90-minute running time, it also doesn't wear out its welcome.

The one plot element that was most obvious was the persistent courtship of Izumi by a tall, lanky customer who appears to be Eurasian and occasionally utters French and English words to Izumi ("Mademoiselle Keiko, please!"). He is played by Masumi Okada, a multilingual Japanese actor who was indeed half-European (his mother was Danish) and he did live in France as a child. Okada's aggressive courting of Izumi borders on the obnoxious although she eventually warms up to him. He's the only male customer we see at the beauty salon.

Hibari plays Kimie and she seems to have some issue with her father (Jun Tazaki) who seems to be living a double life. She has a relationship with the manager of a local theater which stages live productions. He is played by Akira Takarada, who starred in the first Godzilla movie (GOJIRA, 1954) and other subsequent Toho sci-fi and monster films. They have their on-again, off-again moments throughout the film. Takarada played her romantic partner in both ROMANCE MUSUME and OHATARI SANSHOKU MUSUME (ON WINGS OF LOVE, 1957).

There are five musical numbers (six if I include the brief song they sing in the car while driving to visit their old teacher early in the film). Each gets a fantasy solo where they sing in a deserted setting: Chiemi leaves the control room and enters the empty TV studio to sing a song and do a jazz dance, with two convenient technicians transformed into black-clad backup dancers; Izumi sings a song employing her mirror images as backup dancers when she's left alone after hours in the beauty salon; Hibari gets a solo away from her place of work when she's left alone in a now-deserted nightclub after Takarada has stormed off after an argument and she starts singing, accompanied by the club band which has magically reappeared for the number. Izumi's song is the most upbeat; Hibari's is the slowest and most soulful.

Later in the film, the three visit Takarada's theater and watch themselves perform an elaborate comical number on stage in which they're dressed as male tramps (Chaplin-style) and wander through a Times Square set and imagine themselves in the form of various archetypal show biz figures. Izumi does a Marilyn Monroe-style number; Chiemi plays both parts in a Madame Butterfly romantic duet; Hibari plays a bullfighter from a "Blood and Sand" poster. It's cute and clever and the most elaborate number in the whole film. It's also the third time I've seen the three girls enter a theater and watch themselves perform. They did this in JANKEN MUSUME and ROMANCE MUSUME also.

In the film's finale, the girls sing a number together at a wedding, with each getting solo lines. I can't identify any of the song titles in the film. Unlike the earlier films, this time none of the songs have complete English verses in them, only an occasional English word, and none of them are covers of American pop songs.

One great unexpected moment comes when we find Chiemi and her cameraman on location at a huge, empty Olympic stadium. This stadium was newly constructed for the Tokyo Summer Olympics that year (1964) and the scene was filmed well before the Olympics. What a great little snapshot in time.

I tend to enjoy the first two Sannin Musume films more because they had more songs and musical numbers, but I'm always fascinated by the antics of these three distinct Japanese pop culture figures, the most popular Japanese recording stars in the postwar era, and I only wish they'd made more movies together.