The Makioka Sisters

Osaka at the end of the thirties. The Makioka are an old and respected merchant family whose money has thinned. There are four sisters. The eldest two are married and run the house; the third, Yukiko, is still unmarried and one arranged meeting after another fails. The youngest, Taeko, is building her own life: she earns money, has a lover, and has to wait for her sister to marry. Tradition does not allow otherwise. Kon Ichikawa directs. The source is Junichiro Tanizaki's novel, written during the war and blocked from publication by the military government. The subject is a class coming apart. The family still lives by the rules of decorum and has no economic ground left; the film takes that on directly while the war approaches in the background. The image is its strongest element. The kimono patterns, the turning of the seasons and the cherry blossom scene are built in detail; Ichikawa uses the image as a record rather than a display of wealth. The balance between the four sisters is the structure; each stands at a different point in relation to tradition and none is entirely vindicated. The novel is among the best known family narratives in Japanese literature and has been adapted several times. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese period film and literary adaptation. Who it is not for: the pace is very slow, little happens, and the sisters are hard to tell apart in the first half.