is a 1958 Japanese
drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
and
crime film
Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...
directed by
Yoshitarō Nomura
was a prolific Japanese film director, film producer, and screenwriter. His first accredited film, , was released in 1952; his last, , in 1985. He received several awards during his career, including the Japanese Academy Award for "Best Direc ...
, based on a short story by
Seicho Matsumoto of the same name.
Plot
After the murder of a pawnbroker,
Tokyo
Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...
detectives Shimooka and Yuki are sent to
Kyushu
is the third-largest island of Japan's Japanese archipelago, four main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands (i.e. excluding Okinawa Island, Okinawa and the other Ryukyu Islands, Ryukyu (''Nansei'') Ryukyu Islands, Islands ...
, home of murder suspect Ishii's former girlfriend, Sadako, as the police expect Ishii to make contact with her. While observing her house, Yuki starts to sympathise with Sadako, who has an unhappy marriage with a mean and domineering bank executive.
When Ishii finally meets with Sadako, Ishii tells her that he wanted to see her but cannot stay. Both regret abandoning their love. They agree to go away together. The police arrest Ishii, leaving behind a grieving Sadako. As Shimooka and Yuki prepare to return to Tokyo with Ishii, Yuki writes a telegram to his girlfriend Yumiko, promising to marry her.
Cast
*
Seiji Miyaguchi as Shimooka
*
Minoru Ōki as Yuki
*
Hideko Takamine
was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) a ...
as Sadako
*
Takahiro Tamura as Ishii
* Hizuru Takachiho as Yumiko
*
Kin Sugai as Mrs. Shimooka
*
Kumeko Urabe as landlady
*
Ryōhei Uchida as Yamada
*
Kamatari Fujiwara as Yumiko's father
* Tomoko Fumino as Yumiko's mother
* Miki Odagiri as maid
* Kazuko Yamamoto as maid
*
Masao Shimizu as Sadako's husband
Awards
1958
Kinema Junpo
, commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...
Award,
and
Mainichi Film Award for Best Screenplay (
Shinobu Hashimoto).
Legacy
Matsumoto's short story was repeatedly adapted for television in later years. Some of these adaptations stayed closer to the original story, which has only one detective, Yuki, observe Sadako,
while others took over Hashimoto's idea to present two detectives.
References
External links
*
*
{{Yoshitaro Nomura
1958 films
1958 crime drama films
1950s Japanese films
Films based on short fiction
Films directed by Yoshitaro Nomura
Films scored by Toshiro Mayuzumi
Films with screenplays by Shinobu Hashimoto
Japanese black-and-white films
Japanese crime drama films
Shochiku films
Films based on works by Seichō Matsumoto