Emiko Yagumo has developed feelings for Arai Atsushi. She writes him a letter, stating that she considers him a good friend, and could she have a conversation with him about a problem. After the letter has gone out, she discovers he is to marry her sister, Michiko Oikawa, so the conversation is awkward; she cannot tell him about her feelings. After the wedding, her sister and brother-in-law try to be kind to her, which makes her feel worse.
It's the earliest full surviving movie of Hiroshi Shimizu. Like many Japanese movies of this period, it concerns itself with the tension between traditional Japanese values -- family, avoiding confrontation -- and the liberation of women, who now can hold respectable employment. Miss Yagumo does so, but her old-fashioned costume marks her as holding to those traditional values. There's one nice scene of her and Miss Oikawa walking on the street, traveling in the opposite direction to every woman wearing western clothes. All the women who wear kimonos are either traveling opposite the main current, or are standing still.
The modern western watcher may find this movie a bit difficult to follow. The distinction between what is old-fashioned in Japan in this period, and what, if anything, Miss Yagumo can do about it seems obscure. To the Japanese, whose culture maintains wisps of these attitudes, and those who have taught themselves something about Japanese film making in the late silent period, and have learned something about their culture will find it very rewarding.
It's the earliest full surviving movie of Hiroshi Shimizu. Like many Japanese movies of this period, it concerns itself with the tension between traditional Japanese values -- family, avoiding confrontation -- and the liberation of women, who now can hold respectable employment. Miss Yagumo does so, but her old-fashioned costume marks her as holding to those traditional values. There's one nice scene of her and Miss Oikawa walking on the street, traveling in the opposite direction to every woman wearing western clothes. All the women who wear kimonos are either traveling opposite the main current, or are standing still.
The modern western watcher may find this movie a bit difficult to follow. The distinction between what is old-fashioned in Japan in this period, and what, if anything, Miss Yagumo can do about it seems obscure. To the Japanese, whose culture maintains wisps of these attitudes, and those who have taught themselves something about Japanese film making in the late silent period, and have learned something about their culture will find it very rewarding.