The Lady Of Musashino

The Lady Of Musashino (1951) is an adaptation of a novel by Shohei Ooka (best known for his novel Fire on the Plains that was adapted into a film by Kon Ichikawa) from Kenji Mizoguchi. It resembles Miss Oyu in the main storyline of a philandering husband, Akiyama (Masayuki Mori), a professor from a modest background who tries to swindle his long suffering wife Michiko (Kinuyo Tanaka) out of her inheritance.  Being that she is a lady, she tries to keep the marriage together for appearances despite her attraction to her young war-repatriated cousin, Tsutomu (Akihiko Katayama). The story is complicated by her neighbors, her cousin Eiji (So Yamamura), the owner of a munitions factory married to the restless Tomiko (Yuki Todoroki), who also has he eye on Tsutomu. However, this melodrama is less interesting to me than the early scenes in the film that document air raids, the building of bomb shelters, criticism of the war, frank assessments of war profiteering (from Eijji's munitions factory), a cynical world weary repatriated soldier, and fear of an invasion that result in the distribution of cyanide pills for anyone who wants them, of which Akiyama scoffs "Why? The Allies are not beasts!" Tsutomo starts his return as a pleasure seeking playboy having cheap casual sex with fast girls before being lured back to Musashino to teach Tomiko's daughter and becomes attracted to Michiko and fights off Tomiko's advances and receives scorn from Akiyama. The film quickly follows a conventional path to result in the tragedy of the death of Michiko by suicide. However, she has remained true and pure with an unrequited love for Tsutomu. It is a minor Mizoguchi film overall, but again, the beauty in which the scenes are rendered along with exquisite location shots of a Musashino that no longer exists today elevates the film above the mediocre material plot-line.