Sound of the Mountain

A family in Tokyo. Shingo is ageing, still at the company, and noticing that his memory is going. His son Shuichi is unfaithful to his wife and does not even trouble to hide it. His daughter in law Kikuko knows and says nothing to anyone. Shingo feels closer to her than to his own son, and the closeness disturbs them both. Mikio Naruse directs, from Yasunari Kawabata's novel. Setsuko Hara plays Kikuko and Sô Yamamura plays Shingo. The relationship at the centre is undefined and stays that way. What Shingo feels for Kikuko is neither fatherly nor romantic; it is an unnamed closeness and the film never attempts to explain it. Naruse's cinema is built on exactly that uncertainty. For anyone who knows Setsuko Hara from Ozu, this part is different. In Ozu she is usually accommodating and smiling; here the smile is a defence, and the anger underneath is visible. Naruse's method is quiet. The camera does not move, there is almost no music, and the important decisions happen off screen. You infer the outcome from behaviour. The ending is not a resolution. Kikuko makes a decision and what it will bring is not stated. Who it is for: viewers interested in Japanese family drama and in the difference between Naruse and Ozu. Who it is not for: the pace is very heavy and the conflict never surfaces. If you want events, there is almost nothing here.