Sound of the Mountain (1954)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Sound of the Mountain (1954) – M. Naruse

Setsuko Hara stars as Kikuko, a young housewife who lives with her husband and older in-laws. Her husband (Ken Uehara) is often away until late in the evening (in fact, he is cheating on her with a mistress). To divert her attention from this, she devotes herself to taking care of her parents-in-law and forms an especially close relationship with her father-in-law, Ogata-san (Sô Yamamura).  Indeed, the film focuses in on their tender feelings toward each other, although it is clear that there are many roadblocks that prevent open expression of these feelings. His tense relationship with his own daughter, going through a divorce, provides a counterpoint. Eventually, Ogata-san decides to intervene in his son’s affair by confronting the mistress (but not, at first, the son).  At the same time, he learns a deep and painful secret about Kikuko which reveals much about her character (and her private response to her husband’s behaviour). Director Mikio Naruse (a great Japanese master) captures a poignant nuance, an unspoken love even, in the final meeting between the two leads.  Of course, a family drama such as this will always remind viewers of Ozu (particularly a father-daughter drama starring Setsuko Hara!) but Naruse was his contemporary and his shomin-geki are often just as good (although much sadder).