Tsuma yo bara no yô ni

A young middle-class woman sets out to a remote mountain village in Nagano to bring her estranged father back to Tokyo where his presence is needed to fulfill some pressing social obligations - chief among them a meeting between her parents and the father of her intended bridegroom. Her own father, though, would rather stay with his common law wife - a former geisha - and their two children despite their relative poverty and "disgraceful" circumstances. Father is happy prospecting for non-existent gold in the rivers of his adopted rural home, while his selfless and devoted 'wife' ekes out a living as a hairdresser.

Back in Tokyo, Etsuko, the abandoned wife and Kimiko's self-absorbed and pretentious mother publishes mournful haiku for her long lost husband and patiently waits for his return. Will Father return to his "rightful" place with his "legitimate" family or will he forsake them for his mistress and their two children? Naruse Mikio's comic and heart stirring melodrama 'Wife! Be Like a Rose' offers a surprising and refreshing take on familiar Japanese themes on 'self-sacrifice' and filial devotion.