Kon Ichikawa probably is the director who most rightfully can be considered to be the successor of Yasujiro Ozu. At the beginning of his career he made a couple of war films, but later his subject was more and more the daily life of middle class families.
"The Makioka sisters" is a film from the second half of his career and is about the relationships between four sisters of a family in the Kimono business. All the sisters are different. The two oldest are married, number 3 and 4 are still single. The oldest one runs the external (business) relations, the second one runs the internal (family) relations. Number 3 is looking for a husband the traditional way and is choosy in this regard. Number 4, who can (according to tradition) only marry when number 3 is finally married, is more easy going. She finds the character of her potential boy friends more important than his social standing.
"The Makioka sisters" was a film in honor of the 50th anniversary of the production company, so the film had to be a little festive. Situating the film in a family in the kimono business enabled Ichikawa to use bright colors, and in this respect the film reminded me of "Ju Dou" (1990, Zhang Yimou).
Due to the possibility of using bright colors in a film and not in a book, one is inclined to say that in this case the film must be better than the book. Some years ago I read (another) book from the writer Jun'ichiro Tanizaki and now I am not so sure anymore. Tanizaki turned out to be a very subtle writer. Maybe I need to read "The Makioka sisters" some day to come to a final judgement.
