Imamura has an unmistakable documentary style, that seems to be a sort of hit or miss principle. He was a part of the new reaction against the traditional and conformist structure of the contemporary film creators, much like Truffaut and others were in Europe. He honed his love of the documentary style from quite early on and more or less stuck to it ever since. Now at this rather early point it has not been fine tuned yet and despite what we might think, his personality actually favored order and structure, while the impulsive side of him sort of was intrigued by disorder. This duality is in my opinion something that comes across quite clearly in this movie.
The story unfolds over a 45 year period from 1918 until the present time of the release of the movie. The center character is the woman Tomé (Sachiko Hidari ) and her struggles to survive through this period. We follow her in selected scenes through her life and they are not broad sweeping plot-filled stories that describe the turning points whenever they may occur but rather selected everyday scenarios that both serve to constantly refresh our view of her through the environment she is in, but also to raise the question "does she ever get anywhere in her life"
She is born into a poor farm community as an illegitimate child. There are very clear indications that there are more than platonic love from her father. She is generally a positive child and also rather beautiful and therefore desired by men. She is not the sharpest tool in the shed but then she has a rather positive expression and pragmatic mentality that I suppose is what keeps her from really advancing her life away from her imposed culture.
The recurring theme is the idea of women being exploited by men. It is not presented in a judgemental fashion at all, but it is there throughout. But Imamura does a very concealed job of also putting the blame for women´s situation in their own hands. Actually women are also taking advantage of men and this is repeatedly referenced in the dialog of the women, both from Tome herself but from all the other women too.
Right from her teenage years she is lectured by other women of how to advance in society through men by sort of manipulating her into the right family and so on. She is not really succesful, and her efforts to find a crack to get through is constantly blocked by events outside her control. There are political reason internally in Japan. There is the second world war. The occupation by the Allies and so on. She just tries to hang on as best she can and figure out a way to get ahead through men.
Every single scene is shot on location and it shows. Some scenes are not that well suited for shooting in my opinion and the differences in lighting gave Imamura a hard time in balancing the overall feel of it. Some scenes are too bright and some are too dark. This is not due to artistic expression but rather the limitations of the location. The sheer amount of different locations and the fast cutting between them is too much for my taste. You never get used to an environment and never really get time to let her emotional journey sink in
The plot has to stretch over half a century and it seems like a task too large to embrace even in 2 hours of film. It feels too erratic and fractured. I like the creative shots that are completely against conventional "rules" that comes again and again. But seen as a whole - it does not work for me. It feels like a nice car assembled the wrong way. The parts are fine but the end result feels rushed or force fed to you to reach the goal of spanning these many years.
The purpose i found most compelling at the end was the sense that when leaving the theater after viewing this film in 1963 and the story also ending at that same time, everyone you would meet in the street could possibly have a history matching that of Tomé. The story of the film, your own story and everybody else´s converge at the point of the end of it the film.
The actor who plays the lead is very well chosen for this part. She has that naive but stil ambitious look, that fits the role perfectly. She also "ages" well during the film and she fits the role as both young and middle aged. There is always the hurdle of the language and the culture differences from my own western culture that seems to be a bit of a barrier now and then. It might also help in a review of a movie like this to know a good deal more about Japanese history than I actually do.
But generally i am not really impressed with the end result of this movie. I found it frustrating that it keeps jumping on and on to the next time period without giving me time to absorb the culture, the environment and the reasons for her behavior. The part with her daughter is brought in to express the notion that the fate of her daughter will not be different from hers and that she is sort of powerless to do anything about it. That is not true at all. If she waits until the girl is 20 years old or whatever to teach her about reality, it is too late. She has blown it, due to her selfish interest of getting her own life on track.
I still find that the overall message is that women are victims and that they are unable to get ahead in life, just because they are women. And if they are not victims, they are just constantly unlucky. It would have made a great deal of difference if the women would have been forced to state that they themselves have the responsibility for their destiny. maybe it is hidden in there somewhere but i do not really se it as the overall message. This proposed "uneven struggle" is illustrated in the title and the first shots with the insect that keeps trying to get over the mountain but keeps sliding down. Maybe it is an unintentional metaphor, but Tomé´s father makes a wooden doll at the beginning that he claims is the mountain god. And that god is a woman. In this way he presumably unintentionally states that women are women´s worst enemy.
(all images are my own photos taken with an iPad directly at the TV screen)
Rating: 5/10
