Kirai Kirai Kirai / 嫌い嫌い嫌い / (‘Hate hate hate’, 1960)

 

Ichiro Sugai

 

Sojuro Shinkawa (Ichiro Sugai) is the elderly chairman of theShinkawa conglomerate, a position which he was hoping his son, Sotaro (KenjiSugawara), would succeed him in. However, Sotaro has rebelled and gone off todo his own thing, so Sojuro gathers the presidents of the six companies whichmake up the conglomerate and asks them each to select their most promising employeeand send them to head office, where they will compete to marry hisgranddaughter, Kikuko (Atsuko Kindaichi), and the winner will be groomed tobecome the new chairman. 

 

Atsuko Kindaichi
 

The six men chosen run the gamut from the ultra masculine Nagaoka(Ryuichi Ishii) with his impressive chest hair to the effeminate Hirose (KanjiMatsumoto), who drinks only milk, a thermos of which he always carries withhim. Other candidates include Sakurai (future director Juzo Itami), who used tobe friends with Kikuko as a child, the handsome and modest Tsujimoto (JiroTamiya), who appears to be the favourite, and coal miner Fukumitsu (GenMitamura), who is conflicted due to his secret love for co-worker Sumiko (JunkoKano)…

 

Jiro Tamiya
 

This Daiei production was based on a novel entitled Hana no sarariman (‘The Flower Salaryman’)by Keita Genji (1912-85), a writer well-known for this type of material whosework also provided the basis for many other films including Masumura’s Blue Sky Maiden (1957) and The Most Valuable Wife (1959). 

 

Junko Kano
 Sachiko Hidari

For me, the main appeal was that it provided a rare chance to seeanother film by Hiroshi Edagawa, whose RosesBloom on The Rose Bush (1959) I liked so much. However, this one is less interestingas it’s basically a piece of fluff, albeit a well-made one which is notunentertaining. It’s an ensemble piece with no real star at the centre,although Jiro Tamiya and Junko Kano were both beginning to get popular at thetime and Sachiko Hidari also appears prominently, although in a role that haslittle bearing on the story, while Kazuko Matsuo pops up singing the title songin a nightclub (to which you can listen on YouTube here). Even Bokuzen Hidarimakes an appearance as one of the company presidents - which may well be themost untypical role he ever played. Anyway, for the most part, it's a pleasant enoughtime-passer, though the gay stereotyping of Kanji Matsumoto’s character isregrettable. 

 

Bokuzen Hidari
 

A note on the title:

Kirai can also be translated as ‘I hate it’, ‘I hate you’, etc, so the tagline on the Japanese posters should probably be read as ‘I hate him because he’shandsome! I hate him because he’s rich! I hate him because he has chest hair!Is that really true?’

 

Kazuko Matsuo
 Watched with dodgy subtitles.