Late Chrysanthemums

I do love Naruse, but maybe I missed something about this film. All the ideas are there. It follows a group of retired geisha, each trying to survive in the world past their prime. One has saved money and has become a scrupulous business woman. She lends money, but demands it back in a friendly, casual, but threatening way. Her old friends hold her in contempt, and believe she thinks she is better than them now. She has erased men from her life and she holds this as the reason to her success. Needless to say, some old flames soon arrive and she flirts with the idea of love once again. The film isn't bad, just very dull. I love my slow movies, but this was all talking. Everyone just says what they think, feel, and so on. It makes for a very bland movie experience. Especially when two characters spell out the films message at the end. I know this film was adapted from a number of short stories, and it kind of shows. Though these would work better bas articles. Don't start your Naruse viewing with this, as he has some incredible movies out there.

Unlike those of his contemporaries, Mizoguchi, Ozu and Kurosawa, the films of Mikio Naruse are mostly unknown in the West and yet they are just as relevant and just as powerful. The "Late Chrysantehmums" of this extraordinary film are four ageing former geisha's with money problems and this is one of the most insightful of films dealing with the role of women in post-war Japanese society and not just the women at the centre who once sold their bodies but who now have nothing to barter but also the daughter of one of them who is prepared to marry an older man for financial security. Money is at the basis of everything that happens in the film and it taints the lives of all the characters. It is superbly played, particularly by those great Japanese actresses Haruko Sugimura as the moneylender Okin and Chikako Hosokawa as the drunken Otamae. Like Naruse, these two actresses never really 'crossed over' to the West and yet their work in Japanese cinema is as fine as any to have graced international cinema while this is a film on a subject that, in hindsight, would never have been tackled in Western cinema at this time. Of course that, in itself, does not make it a masterpiece but a masterpiece it is, nevertheless. It is one of the greatest of all films on the disappointments that life throws at us.

Naruse is typically considered one of the 3 master founders of Japanese film, the other two being Ozu and Mizoguchi. This is an interesting and honest film on the lives of retired Geishas. Whatever happens, when such a woman ages, and loses her charm and mystique? Well, for those who are interested, watch this film. One: Okin, is successful as a money-lender, but the other two have to borrow from her and are resentful. Okin doesn't have any children, but the other do. Okin finds out that her old love is coming to visit her, and is excited. Naruse is a master in subtle studies of his female protagonists' characters. Bangiku ultimately draws the viewer into the study of the questions of ones happiness, and one's life-worth. Very good film indeed.

Late Chrysanthemums (Japanese: Bangiku) (1954) Director: Mikio Naruse Rating: 6/10 Stars

Naruse comfort film a geisha melodrama far from his best fare bleak sake-drenched monochrome saved by soft beauty and grace

#Tanka #PoemReview

Poem Reviews focus on beautiful word use, language that prioritizes briefness over this vex some minimum required characters count.

This film is about aging Geisha in post war Tokyo. Okin, played by the incredible Haruko Sugimara, lends money to two other ex Geisha, Tamae (Chikako Hosokawa) and Otomi (Yuko Mochizuki) and they resent the way she is somewhat smug about it. Tamae has a son, Otomi a daughter, who during the film announce they're leaving them while Okin, never a mother, gets visits from two men in her past who, it turns out, just want money from her. Its a compelling tale of what choices you make, what you do to get through life and who you're responsible and beholden to. Haruko Sugimara has always been in my eyes one of the greatest character actresses ever from any country and she plays the mostly unyielding, less than compassionate Okin with an air of superiority that makes you not like her, but at the same time almost envy her. At a time when great films were made by Ozu, Mizoguchi, Kinoshita and Kurosawa, amongst others, Mr. Naruse is right up there with him. If you have a region free DVD player, you should attempt to find the two Naruse box sets released in England. I think this film was a great character study of women who are in danger of being irrelevant. That they are really not makes this film a veritable masterpiece.