Miss Oyu

A Japanese period film. Shinnosuke goes to a meeting arranged for his marriage. The girl he is to meet is Shizu. But Shizu's older sister Oyu comes as well, and Shinnosuke gives her all his attention. Oyu is a widow. She lives in the house of her dead husband's family, where her son is being raised; by custom she cannot marry again. Shizu understands. She makes a proposal: Shinnosuke should marry her so that he can stay close to her sister. The marriage will exist only on paper. The arrangement is accepted and the three try to keep it going. But it is Shizu who carries its price; she is absent from her own marriage. What the film describes is not a triangle but a woman erasing herself by her own will, and what that costs. The source is a story by Junichiro Tanizaki. Kinuyo Tanaka plays Oyu and Nobuko Otowa plays Shizu. Kazuo Miyagawa photographed it; the scenes are built in long takes with a moving camera and very little cutting. Kenji Mizoguchi directed. A strong production for anyone who likes Japanese classics and drama about silent pain. For a viewer expecting open conflict, the film says everything by implication.