She Came for Love / 女が愛して憎むとき / Onna ga aishite nikumu toki (‘When a Woman Loves and Hates’, 1963)

Obscure Japanese Film #138

Ayako Wakao

Toshiko (Ayako Wakao)is the madam of a bar in Osaka who tries to keep her private life private andclaims not to have a lover. However, she is in fact having a secret affair withOzeki (Jiro Tamiya), a concert promoter who specialises in booking Americanartists and dreams of bringing Elvis to Japan. Ozeki is married and reluctantto leave his wife (Tazuko Niki), as she can speak English, which is veryhelpful to his business. Toshiko is well aware of all this but is apparentlysatisfied with the arrangement. 

Jiro Tamiya and Ayako Wakao

 

Although Toshiko’s baris successful and she is a popular hostess, problems begin to arise. Herdespised ex-husband (Akihiko Katayama) reappears and keeps bugging her; one ofher employees, Nobuko (Kyoko Enami), is being a bit too flirtatious with thecustomers; Ozeki is making some risky deals and getting in over his head; andher former boss and mentor, Rie (Mitsuko Mori), is unhappy with her becauseToshiko’s cheap whisky is tempting customers away from Rie’s bar…

Kyoko Enami

 

At times watching this,I was reminded of Naruse’s When a WomanAscends the Stairs (1960), which is understandable as not only does thisDaiei production cover similar territory, but it turns out that, like Naruse’sfilm, it also has an original screenplay by Ryuzo Kikushima (a frequentcollaborator of Akira Kurosawa). The story is character-driven rather thanplot-driven – something which is a major strong point of the script for me, andgives Wakao an excellent role which she plays to perfection. Toshiko undergoesa rather bitter inner journey and is not the same person at the end of the filmthat we met at the beginning. She Camefor Love may well be a case of the script and cast being more importantthan the director, though the little-known Sokichi Tomimoto handles all aspectswell. In any case, it’s a fine film which deserves to be better-known, and itshould be a must for all fans of Ayako Wakao.

Mitsuko Mori

 

Although quite famous inher home country, Mitsuko Mori (who plays the important role of Rie soconvincingly) is unlikely to be familiar to many non-Japanese viewers as she hada patchy film career, first appearing in 58 films between 1935 and 1941, mostof which were undistinguished B-pictures. After a long hiatus from the bigscreen, she made two films in 1957, and then worked in films fairly steadily –mainly in supporting roles – from 1961 until the early 1970s. However, during most of her periods of absence from the cinema she wasbusy with radio,television and stage work. Her signature role was as author Fumiko Hayashi in thestage version of Hayashi’s autobiographical work, A Wanderer’s Notebook; she performed this over 2,000 times from1961, although when Mikio Naruse filmed it the following year, it was Hideko Takaminewho won the part. No surprise, then, that Mori never went on to make a film with Takamine,although Naruse subsequently employed her for a part in his final film, Scattered Clouds (1967). 

 Thanks to A.K., and to Coral Sundy for the subtitles, which can be found here. 

 DVD at Amazon Japan.