The Inheritance (1962) :
Brief Review -
Masaki Kobayashi's dirty picture of greed. The Inheritance, by name, is a very revealing film, and inside it, it's even more revealing. There were days when femme fatale formulas used to see a woman/girl doing anything for the sake of money; I mean, any kind of crime. Just remove the crime and make it an illicit relationship, and you have your The Inheritance ready. It must have been shocking for many Japanese film viewers to see such brutal and sexually exploitative exploration of a woman in the film. I am sure many would have fired their female secretaries after this film. So, the film is about a millionaire businessman who is dying of cancer. He makes a will and wants his wife to have one third, while the other two will go to his illegitimate children he had from three different women. He has a beautiful secretary, who fancies him somewhat. He used this young secretary for his sexual pleasures when his young wife denied having sex with him, as she had different plans to get all of the property in her name and was linked with some other fella. The secretary gets money for doing all this, and after a while, she gets used to the idea. She becomes pregnant and gets one third of the will, which has been left incomplete as other children have not been suitable for the same. In the climax, we see a twist that hands over many things to one character, and by now, you must have got the idea who it is. I am kind of allergic to such dirty affairs and tricks, especially driven by women, so of course, I won't recommend this to those who like to watch purity in cinema. Those who like such stuff can enjoy it. Despite that, it's an engaging story, told by a shameless woman, who somehow becomes used to the dirty tricks played by the work and eventually turns out to be the only winner. But yes, it's nowhere near my idea of a Masaki Kobayashi film. He has done many better films than this.
RATING - 6/10*
By - #samthebestest.
