A Wife's Heart (1956) User Reviews

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[boblipton · 6/10 · 7 October 2023]

The little shop that Hideko Takamine and her husband, Keiju Kobayashi, run on a side street in the town is doing poorly. There's too much competition from the stores on the main street, just around the corner. They plan to open a cafe on the vacant lot next door, but his mother, Yôko Sugi, seems to insist on misunderstanding, and money is tight because they've just married off a daughter of the house. Nonetheless, they persist, and have just arranged a loan with old friend and banker Toshiro Mifune, when the elder brother, Minoru Chiaki, returns from Tokyo. His company has collapsed, and he has no place to take his wife and young daughter. As Kobayashi and Miss Takamine try to figure out how to get their cafe off the ground, Chiaki announces that he wants to open a cafe on the other side of the tracks, and everyone insists that they lend him the money. Things go from bad to worse....

Mikio Naruse, as I have mentioned in other reviews, made movies about how families deal with crises, and how they work, instead of the smoothly-running families in Ozu's movies. Here, things get pretty dire, and it looks like everything is breaking down. No one gives a rap about what Miss Takamine wants or needs, at least in the house; Mifune, and his sister are bright, cheery, and helpful, while her family is silent around Miss Takamine. Chiaki disappears with 200,000 yen and Kobayashi goes off to a mountain resort with a geisha. Can this family survive, and should it?

It's another fine movie from Naruse, but it's just too depressing.

Tsuma no kokoro (1956)

[SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain · 9/10 · 13 December 2011]

A Wife's Heart is my long anticipated return to the films of Mikio Naruse. He's simply an incredible filmmaker that stands his ground with Ozu, Kurosawa, and Kobayashi. This film is a simple pleasure, but conveys the complications of relationships we all have. A couple, that live with the husband's mother, start to focus on turning a patch of empty land into a café. However, his brother soon turns up asking for some of the loan money as he is out of a job. The film looks at some difficult themes, such as duty to oneself rather than a family member. It's heartbreaking to see so much effort go into a dream, and then see loved ones beg for help. No one is a villain, but everyone is slightly self-centered. Whether they are unwittingly leading on another man, asking their son for too much, being a coward etc. These are everyday occurrences, but from Naruse's expert eye, they are presented with a freshness not seen these days. The climax is of a character overhearing a laugh, which in-turn makes her smile. It's these kinds of sweet, visual gestures, that make his films a pleasure to watch. Takamine gives a powerful performance. She's a woman that is beaten down by everyday life, but refuses to lash out against it. Her attraction to Mifune grows naturally, in a way even she doesn't realize.