For some peculiar reason, I always seem to find most Japanese films to be pretty unusual.... don’t ask me why. I think a lot of it might just be certain cultural differences, as well as differences in how many Japanese directors make their films. Even now, I still remember the behavior of the prostitutes in Street of Shame. Instead of the aloof, detached prostitutes we see in American movies, there were women desperately trying to plead and persuade men to rent them out for a while. And in Fires on the Plain, a World War II film from the Japanese perspective, there’s an odd sequence, involving the footwear of the tired, worn-out soldiers, that would seem workable in a silent comedy if it weren’t for the fact that this was a serious, and grim, war picture, which included cannibalism, among other things.

Maborosi is also a somewhat odd, but interesting picture as well. Some people might not be very satisfied by how the film’s story turns out, but Maborosi is still a very good movie in any case, and is a good example of modern Japanese cinema.

The film begins quite intriguingly, as we see an event from the main character, Yumiko’s past. As a young girl, she experienced the strange loss of her grandmother -- one day, the old woman leaves town to go back to her home village to die. Yumiko tries to tell her to come back, she’s too young to die, etc, but the old woman keeps going.... Yumiko doesn’t try to stop her. And so when it is obvious that the old woman isn’t coming back, Yumiko feels that it is all her fault for letting her go. She tries to look for her......

But then she wakes up. She is an adult, sleeping with her husband. She has had this dream of her past many times, and her husband tells her that hopefully next time she has the dream, she will be able to find her grandmother.

Yumiko is married, and they have a three month old son. Everything seems to be going fine. The two have a youthful, amusing chemistry, and look pretty delightful together. But then a fatal accident occurs..... actually, it looks more like a suicide. The husband is dead, and the woman is unable to cope.

Years later, she is later fixed up with a man who has lost his wife a while back (apparently, this form of arranged marriage seems to be common in Japan; these scenes don’t suggest that what is about to occur will look odd to American eyes), and finds herself away from the big city, and in a small fishing village in the coast. She seems to adjust quite well, and her son gets along quite well with the man’s daughter. But when she goes back to the city to visit her mother, she goes to the bar where she and her first husband used to go, and after chatting with the bartender about the man’s last day at the bar, Yumiko sinks back into her depression.

The film doesn’t exactly resolve itself in ways that certain viewers will expect. The story does not seem to give us explicit answers. The first half of the film seems to fit together -- her dreams of the past fit nicely with her present situation. She starts thinking that perhaps she’s cursed with letting people go to their deaths -- there’s a sequence where the old fisherwoman says that she’ll get some clams for Yumiko. Soon there is a storm, and Yumiko is worried that perhaps this time she will be indirectly responsible for a third death......

Much of the second half, however, is almost like a quiet, Japanese version of a John Ford film, with lots of eccentric and colorful local folk, and cute scenes involving the kids. And I’m not really sure what the point of the ending is ...... what has she learned? Or should I just take this movie as simply a story of a woman who goes from someone who feels that she can’t control her life to someone who learns to be happy in a fishing village?

The direction of the film is very unusual for those weaned on American styles. There are precious few close-ups in this movie. I can only count two or three brief shots in which you can get a good view of the person’s face (mind you, I’m watching this on VHS on a 23-inch TV); all of the other shots are medium and long shots. The camera is distant, rendering a detached feeling to the story. We are not invited to get emotionally involved -- and there is only a moment near the end where we get to witness strong emotion, when Yumiko vents her sadness and confusion as to why her first husband would kill himself. It must be said that the actress playing Yumiko does a good job of letting this emotion out, after shutting it away for the rest of the film.

Overall, I thought the movie was nice, if slow. It’s definitely a stately, beautiful film to look at, with lots of nice, painterly shots, and disciplined direction. Although the story is told in a quiet, detached, “art-house” type of way, the characters are far from tedious, or overtly serious, but seem like natural, ordinary (Japanese) folk, and there’s lots of cute little scenes of interaction. While I wouldn’t recommend this for the easily bored, Maborosi is a decent film for those interested in Japanese cinema.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day