Naruse's third-to-last film "Onna no naka ni iru tanin" (The Stranger Within a Woman, 1966) was a change of pace from his usual home dramas: a bleak crime narrative adapted from a French novel. Perhaps the experience was pleasant for him, since he decided to venture forward on this path. "Hikinige", his second-to-last film, is the least Naruse-like film, that I have seen from the director. And I have seen 41 films from him to date.
Unlike the previous work, this one doesn't have a source novel. It is visible as narrative freedom. This film feels a little more determined about what it is going for. There are less uneven influences from foreign films too. The screenplay was written by Matsuyama Zenzo, who had frequently worked with Naruse, but also penned films for Kobayashi. This is an angry film, that is way closer to the latter, so another explanation would be that Matsuyama just sent the finished screenplay to the wrong guy. You never know.
Takamine Hideko plays a restaurant owner, whose life comes crashing down, when her young son is killed by a hit and run driver. The driver, played by Tsukasa Yoko, is the wife of a rich company president. The family pays one of their workers so that he takes the blame, but Takamine hears the truth, and decides to infiltrate the family's house, going undercover as their new maid. Her real plan, is eye for an eye.
The plot is really good, and it's a shame this didn't get made by a director more experienced in the right genre. Naruse stumbles. Many of the devices that are used to carry the psychological narrative seem cheesy. Also the film's way of showing the actions that the characters are considering in their minds really did not contribute to the whole, and made the film feel less like a thriller. As a result, this film lacks the proper intensity. The societal criticism of the film against the cold mentality of the rich was evident enough. In this theme, it clearly brings to mind Kurosawa's "Tengoku to jigoku" (High and Low, 1963). Fascinatingly, Naruse's film seems to be just as much a warning about cars and traffic. The message is that we need to be more careful.
The acting in the film is good, especially Takamine's performance. The ending was memorable, but the screenplay would have benefited from some re-working. From his two "crime" films, we can gather, that Naruse's problem with the genre is, that his usual ambiguity does not fit well here. Both of these films would work better, if they were more straight-forward, kept a pace, and ditched the elements that aren't fully developed. Still, it's brave, that a director in his old age tried something this different.
