Sono yo no tsuma (1930)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Yasujiro Ozu

Release Date:

17 March 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Cast

Mitsuko Ichimura	...	Michiko, daughter
Tokihiko Okada	...	Shuji, husband
Chishu Ryu
Tatsuo Saito	...	Suda, doctor
Emiko Yagumo	...	Mayumi, wife
Fuyuki Yamamoto	...	Kagawa, policeman
Togo Yamamoto

Also Known As:

That Night's Wife

Runtime:

USA:65 min

Country:

Japan

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Company:

Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

A "quota quickie" silent by Ozu, in the European style

"That Night's Wife" (the English title) is actually a poor translation of the Japanese "Sono yo no tsuma". A better one might be "My Wife on That Night". Briefly, the film revolves around a desperate man who commits a crime in order to support his family, and the moral dilemma the policeman who tracks him down finds himself in. The film abounds with cultural inconsistencies like Japanese wearing their shoes in the house, etc. It seems Ozu was trying to do a Japanese film in the style of the German realist films he must have been seeing at the time. There is very little of what one associates with the later style of Ozu. Still, it is taut and entertaining.