Sudden Rain (1956)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Sudden Rain (1956) – M. Naruse

I’m a sucker for these Mikio Naruse dramas (or sometimes melodramas) where Japanese people talk incessantly and relationships are carefully observed.  I find them somehow relaxing.  Often Naruse focuses on women and their attitudes toward each other (or toward the men in their lives); in that regard, he aims for us to identify with the great Setsuko Hara (who died last year at 95) here. She is a patient housewife, managing things for herself and her husband (married four years), but denying her own needs and interests (in true Japanese female fashion).  I read somewhere too that Naruse films tend to fixate on money problems and Sudden Rain is no exception.  The pivotal event that tips the couple from “kentaiki” (relationship fatigue) into distress is the threat of lay-off for the husband from the cosmetics company where he is a salesman.  Actually, he has to choose between resigning with a 100,000 yen bonus (a vast sum in 1950s Japan) or staying on with the risk of getting laid off with no bonus.  He contemplates moving back to the small village where he grew up, something which he knows his wife would not want to do.  As is typical for Naruse, there is no clear resolution of the issues but, at the film’s end, the couple seems resigned to continuing as they are.

I couldn't find a clip of the film, so here's a quick tribute to Setsuko Hara: