Yama no oto (1954)

An ingratiating bride develops warm ties to her father-in-law while her cold husband blithely slights her for another woman.

Director:

Mikio Naruse

Writers:

Yasunari Kawabata (novel), Yôko Mizuki (adaptation)

Stars:

Setsuko Hara, Sô Yamamura, Ken Uehara

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview:
Setsuko Hara	...	Ogata Kikuko
Sô Yamamura	...	Ogata Shingo
Ken Uehara	...	Otto, Shuichi
Yôko Sugi	...	Tanizaki Hideko
Teruko Nagaoka	...	Tsuma, Yasuko
Yatsuko Tan'ami	...	Ikeda
Chieko Nakakita	...	Aihara Fusako
Rieko Sumi	...	Kinuko
Hisao Toake	...	Shingo no yuujin
Machiko Kitagawa
Fumiko Saito
Tsuruko Mano
Nobuo Kaneko

Storyline

The businessman Ogata Shingo works with his son Shuichi, who is his secretary, and they live together in the suburb with their wives Yasuko and Kikuko respectively. Shuichi has a love affair and a loveless marriage with Kikuko. Yasuko has dedicated her entire life to her family but Shingo married her only because her older sister had died. Kikuko is the pride and joy of Shingo and they are close to each other. Out of the blue, Shingo and Yasuko's daughter Fusako leaves her husband and arrives at Shingo's home with her two children. Shingo investigates and finds the address of Shuichi's lover. Meanwhile Kikuko goes to the hospital and Shingo learns that she was pregnant but decided to abort her child.

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Plot Keywords:

marriage | husband wife relationship | kamakura japan | father in law daughter in law relationship | unwanted pregnancy | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

January 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Sounds from the Mountains

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

User Reviews

I'm just missing too much subtext

There are some foreign films so steeped in their culture that as an American who knows the world only through movies, I find myself thoroughly puzzles. Sound of the Mountain is one of those movies.

The story is simple enough. A man bonds with his daughter-in-law, and is upset by the way she's treated by his odious son.

But constantly through the movie I felt like I was just missing something. Someone makes a comment and then the woman turns her head in a way to suggest something significant has happened. The man spends time talking about when someone mispronounces a word and I can't figure out why that's interesting.

I can see there is a concept of proper behavior but I can't quite find its outlines. A lot is left unsaid and I'm not sure what is meant.

I just felt kind of lost.

It's not a problem I have with all Japanese movies. I love Kurosawa, after all.

I'm not giving this a star rating because I don't feel qualified to judge this movie. It is well filmed and looks very nice, the acting is quite good, and the final scene is lovely and touching, yet I did not, for the most part, enjoy it, and if I were to give a star rating based on my subjective experience I would give it a 6 at best.