Thanks larry!
妻よ薔薇のやうに (1935)
Wife! Be Like a Rose!
Directed By: Naruse Mikio
Written By: Naruse Mikio
Starring: Chiba Sachiko, Okawa Heihachiro, Hanabusa Yuriko
Length: 74 min.
Genre: Family Drama
1936 Kinema Junpo Awards Winner: Best Film
Kimiko lives in Tokyo with her mother and is engaged to get married. However, she needs he father to get involved to make the marriage legal. Her father left her mother for a geisha and moved to a rural village a long time ago, and the only contact he has had with them is the little bit of money he sends them. So Kimiko heads to the country to see her father.
I guess I have to stop saying that I generally don't like family dramas. Some of the silent and early sound family dramas from Japanese filmmakers like Ozu Yasujiro and Naruse Mikio are really good movies (with a few being some of the best I've seen). It certainly helps that the movie is short. Only 74 minutes, it keeps the plot moving forward. And unlike most family dramas which focus on one conflict in the family and slowly deals with it, this keeps going by shifting the conflict halfway.
Naruse Mikio is so good at the midpoint twist. Didn't see it coming in Apart From You, didn't see it coming in this movie. Guess I'll be looking out for it in the future.
Unfortunately I did have to settle for watching a very low quality version of the movie on YouTube.
My Rating: 7 / 10
IMDB Rating: 7.5 / 10 (442 votes)
Letterboxd: 3.7 / 5 (449 ratings)
Rotten Tomatoes: 80% Critics* (4-1), --% of Audience (Fewer than 50)