The title of this film echoes a film Naruse made the previous year, Mother, and in turn anticipating the name of one of his most famous films, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (1960). Famously introverted and reluctant to give any overt direction to his actors, Naruse showed a particular affinity for adapting novels by female novelist Fumiko Hayashi, which includes this film along with titles like Repast (1951) and the acclaimed Late Chrysanthemums (1954). Extremely prolific (with 89 films under his belt by the end of his career) and a critical favorite with admirers including Susan Sontag, Naruse remains strangely underrepresented on Western home video despite occasional film retrospectives and effusive studies of his work. Exactly why remains a mystery.
Eschewing the original title of its source novel, Chairo no me, Wife charts the emotional hell unleashed in the marriage between Mihoko (Mieko Takamine) and Toichi (Ken Uehara), whose ten-year union has left both deeply dissatisfied. He doesn't pull in enough income to let her enjoy a lifestyle to which she would like to grow accustomed, and her lack of interest in normal domestic duties has him grumbling about her performance as a spouse. The situation comes to a head when he falls into the arms of a recently widowed coworker, Fusako (Yatsuko Tanami), whose presence spurs Mihoko into action to drive away the interloper. However, whether she actually finds her husband worth the fight is another question entirely.
Obviously the main attraction here in front of the camera is Takamine, a veteran actress who appeared in such films as Kenji Mizoguchi's landmark The 47 Ronin (1941) and went on to star in such titles as The Garden of Women (1954) in addition to an on-and-off career as a singer. This was actually her second collaboration with Naruse after appearing in 1951's ballet drama The Dancer. More long-lasting was her career with her costar Uehara, with whom she had already made six films and would work with again on two more including A Rainbow Plays in My Heart (1957). Furthermore, Uehara and his director made a total of eight features together by the end of the decade including the aforementioned Late Chrysanthemums, which took a look at the career of retired geishas rather than the darker years of a marriage as seen here.
It's worth noting that this was made at a high point for Toho, coming out on the heels of Ikiru (1952) with the massive hits Godzilla and Seven Samurai (both 1954) less than a year away. Naruse was just one of the many maestros at their creative peaks in that period, which also included Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, and Masaki Kobayashi. 1953 also saw the release of the first Eastmancolor Japanese production, Gate of Hell, which went on to earn a special Academy Award for Foreign Language Film. With competition like that, it's no wonder Naruse's films still leave so many riches like this one for Western viewers to still discover.
By Nathaniel Thompson
