A Wife Confesses

Yasuzo Masumura's 1961 film opens in a courtroom. The woman played by Ayako Wakao is held responsible for cutting the rope tying three climbers together, and for her husband's fatal fall. Did she cut it, and if so was she saving herself or her lover: the film does not settle the question with one answer. Masumura builds the narrative between the trial and flashbacks. Each witness statement alters the same event slightly, but this is not a puzzle game. The real subject is the marriage: a life in which she is expected to stay bound to an older, humiliating husband, and the way that expectation is used in court as moral evidence. Wakao's performance is the centre of the film. More than guilty or innocent, she stands as a woman who knows what is expected of her and refuses it. This is among the harshest of the melodramas Masumura made at Daiei. Who it's for: viewers who like Japanese films in which women confront social pressure directly. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a clear answer at the end of a criminal mystery; the film leaves the gap on purpose.