Aka - Saikô shukun
fujin
I want my Tonkatsu! I needed it last night while watching this, but all
the delivery services were closed. Lesson 1: Don't watch Japanese films late
at night. Same goes with Indian movies. First, I should mention that the following
blurb on Letterbox and IMDB and a hundred other sources on the Internet is
completely wrong. It is not "In the forties in Japan, a group of brilliantly
qualified university students are selected to break all ties with their previous
lives and form the Japanese spy service.". I don't know what movie that it
is, but it sounds pretty good. But it isn't this one. It took me a little
while to realize that I wasn't watching a spy thriller. But instead, a gentle
comic satire about the workplace and the battle between the sexes. Espionage
of the heart. At least, I assume it is satire and exaggerated for effect.
Or at least that it has changed since 1959.
In this film, the workplace is depicted basically as a marriage factory.
The very attractive women are hired to clerical positions from which they
launch campaigns to marry the most eligible men in the company and the men
scout the women for a suitable partner. Love is rarely a factor. And as soon
as they hitch up, the woman quits to have babies and a new woman is brought
on board to go through the same process. One thing I can say from experience
is that the company I worked for had an office in Tokyo and I had to go there
for a 3-week project. Literally every woman was a knockout and a few had married
within the company. This was an American company and so the women had better
positions, but the manager was American and when we asked him why all the
women were so good looking, he just smiled enigmatically. Unlike the characters
in this film though, we didn't all go out for Tonkatsu and drinks after work
where the real work of nailing down a marriage proposal takes place.
The film begins with the wedding ceremony of Sugiko (Hisako Takihana) getting
married to her former boss at the Mihara Company. She is the middle sister
of three and the older one Momoko (Yatsuko Tan'ami) is already married to
Nashiko the head of Mihara and the brother of the newly wed. Both of them
had been secretaries at the company. Momoko is a Napoleon of the courtship
and marriage game. Her advice to her sister is to have a baby right away.
"Having a baby consolidates your position". She should probably be running
the company and in fact totally dominates her husband. There is a third sister,
Kyoko, played by the effervescent Ayako Wakao, one of Japan's most popular
actresses at the time. She is a delight.
But Momoko has a plan to get her married to the third brother of the Mihara's.
That way we will have a monopoly and be able to run this company. But Kyoko
and Saburo (Hiroshi Kawaguchi) express no interest in one another, but Momoko
is a conniver and won't give up. Rivals for Kyoko are transferred, his relationship
with a girl put asunder. When Kyoko decides to work for the Mihara Company
that is a sign - she is ready for marriage and just has to find the right
candidate. Of which there is no shortage. Every man in the place tries to
date her, much to the aggravation of the other females who see their long-
term prospects evaporate. The film is directed by Yasuzô Masumura
(Red Angel, Maji, Giants and Toys) and shot in lovely saturated colors. It
is a bit silly really with a merry-go-round of relationships but quite entertaining.
The father of the three sisters is played by Seiji Miyaguchi who appeared
in Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood and Ikiru.
