Life of a Woman
| Life of a Woman | |
|---|---|
| File:Life of a Woman film Theatrical release poster (1953-2).jpg | |
| Directed by | Kaneto Shindō |
| Written by | Kaneto Shindō (screenplay) Guy de Maupassant (novel) |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | Nobuko Otowa |
| Cinematography | Takeo Itō |
| Edited by | Hidetoshi Kasama |
| Music by | Akira Ifukube |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Shintoho |
Release date | |
Running time | |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
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Life of a Woman (女の一生, Onna no issho) is a 1953 Japanese drama film directed by Kaneto Shindō and starring Nobuko Otowa and Koreya Senda. It was written by Shindō based on Guy de Maupassant's 1883 novel Une vie.[1][2][4]
Plot
[edit | edit source]Shortly after graduating from high school, Fujiko Shirakawa is married to Shintarō Yamazaki, whose parents run a lucrative restaurant. Fujiko soon finds out that not only her father-in-law has two mistresses, but that Shintarō has an affair with maid Yuki. Pregnant with Shintarō's child, Fujiko gives in to her parents' and parents-in-law's appeal to stay with her husband. When Yuki also turns out to be pregnant and is sent back to her parents, Fujiko manages to talk her parents-in-law into raising Yuki's son Jirō together with her own son Tarō in the Yamazaki household. Some time later, Shintarō dies, and with the outbreak of the Pacific War, Tarō and Jirō are mobilised.
After the end of the war, Fujiko manages the still flourishing restaurant of the Yamazaki family. Her son Tarō, who has returned from the war while Jirō has gone missing, rapes one of the maids and disappears. Fujiko takes in the maid's child to raise it in her household.
Cast
[edit | edit source]- Nobuko Otowa as Fujiko Shirakawa
- Koreya Senda as Fujiko's father
- Jūkichi Uno as Masao, Fujiko's brother
- Akira Yamauchi as Shintarō Yamazaki
- Eitarō Shindō as Tokubei, Shintarō's father
- Haruko Sugimura as Tamae, Shintarō's mother
- Haruo Tanaka as Yoshihito Mizoguchi
- Tanie Kitabayashi as Tora, Yuki's mother
- Yuriko Hanabusa as Mitsue, Fujiko's mother
- Sumiko Hidaka as Yuki Kawakami
- Ranko Hanai as Harue
- Yukiko Todoroki as Hanayu
- Ichirō Sugai as Kichimatsu, Yuki's father
- Eijirō Tōno as Kyūzaemon
- Eijirō Yanagi as Hamamura
- Taiji Tonoyama as Tomekichi
Reception
[edit | edit source]Reviewing the film in their 1959 book The Japanese Film – Art & Industry, Donald Richie and Joseph L. Anderson saw a "strong evocation of the past", but faulted Shindō for going too far in the depiction of the story's "unpleasant aspects".[4]
References
[edit | edit source]- ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ a b c Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
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- ^ a b Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
[edit | edit source]- Life of a Woman at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
 | This article related to a Japanese film of the 1950s is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- 1953 films
- Japanese drama films
- 1950s Japanese-language films
- 1953 drama films
- Films directed by Kaneto Shindo
- Films with screenplays by Kaneto Shindo
- Films based on French novels
- Films based on works by Guy de Maupassant
- Japanese black-and-white films
- 1950s Japanese films
- Films scored by Akira Ifukube
- Japanese-language drama films
- 1950s Japanese film stubs