The flow of films showing the hard lives of women, and the position they are put in, were at their height in 1950s Japan, and this is without a doubt a standout. Hideko Takamine and character actor Eijirô Tôno are stunning as the kept and the keeper. She, accepting the role of mistress, he, the hated moneylender, barely keeping the illusions which made her accept.
Toyoda's direction is strong, and almost fearless. At times he goes even darker and deeper than most peers, leaving us to study "Otama", and see her self respect slowly fade away. The films only flaw is it's occasional lack of subtlety where it feels like the characters just "had to" voice what we should (and usually already are) feeling - but these occasions are luckily rare. I might also have enjoyed it even more without the introduction of a slight sense of hope, but it's harshness and melancholy is still very much there, in almost every moment.
In fact there is at most time a sense of crassness, especially when Tôno is on the screen. Each gesture, each act, each line. You can genuinely feel why he is despised by the people around him, and this without him ever being overtly cruel, something he brilliantly would be the first to point out.
Toyoda had a brilliant eye for detail, and managed to do things they sometimes even had a hard time doing, such as letting every single character, no matter how small, shine in their own way, and be truly worth remembering. Even more incredibly, no one steals the spotlight away from Otame. Each event, each character, they all reflect upon her story, and often adds a further layer to her prison.
