A Wife Confesses

Yasuzo Masumura is one of the more underrated Japanese directors of the 1960s. In A Wife Confesses (1961), Masumura brings Masaya Muruyama's novel to screen and succeeds largely on the star turn by Ayako Wakao as, Ayako Takigawa, an unhappily married woman on trial for the murder of her husband Ryokichi Takigawa (Eitaro Ozawa). The story is complicated by the presence of the husband's business associate Osamu Koda (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), who is sympathetic to Ayako and with her when the husband is killed on a mountain climbing excursion. The story balances on whether or not Ayako has willfully killed her husband or acted out of self preservation by cutting the rope that was also tied to her and Koda. It doesn't seem to matter that Takigawa was an egotistical, bitter, and hateful individual. Masumura vacillates between claustrophobic courtroom scenes and the wide open spaces of the mountains of Nagano with inspired cinematography. Yet another impressive film from an underrated director.