She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum

She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum (野菊の如き君なりき, Nogiku no gotoki kimi nariki), also known as You Were Like a Wild Chrysanthemum or My First Love Affair, is a 1955 Japanese drama film directed by Keisuke Kinoshita. It is based on a novel by Saicho Ito.[2][3][4]

She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum
Japanese野菊の如き君なりき
Directed byKeisuke Kinoshita
Written by
  • Keisuke Kinoshota
  • Saicho Ito (novel)
Starring
Music byTadashi Kinoshita
CinematographyHiroshi Kusuda
Production
company
Distributed byShochiku Films
Release date
  • November 29, 1955 (1955-11-29)
[1]
Running time
92
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Plot

73-year-old Masao is taking a river boat to pay his remote home village a visit. On his way, he reminiscences in flashbacks his youth during the Meiji era and his first great love Tamiko.

Tamiko works in the household of cousin Masao's parents. The families and the villagers are suspicious of the close, yet innocent relationship between the teenagers. While some people mock their spending time together, Tamiko's sister-in-law acts openly hostile. The contact between the two is more and more inhibited, and after Masao is sent away to a higher school in another town, Tamiko is pressured into an unwanted marriage. Tamiko first resists, but when Masao's mother declares that she will under no circumstances allow her to marry her son, she finally gives in. Omasu, the housemaid, meets Masao and gives him the news, at the same time reminding him that Tamiko will always love him. A few months later, Masao receives a telegram by his mother, asking him to come home quickly. Upon returning, he learns of Tamiko's unhappy marriage, divorce, and recent death due to an illness. The family, grieving the loss, tells Masao that the dead Tamiko held a letter from him in her hand, pressed against her heart.

Again in the present, the old Masao has reached his destination and visits Tamiko's grave, contemplating her fate with the words, "late autumn and the fields are lonesome, only crickets sing by her grave".

Cast
  • Chishū Ryū as Masao at 73 years
  • Noriko Arita as Tamiko
  • Shinji Tanaka as young Masao
  • Haruko Sugimura as Masao's mother
  • Takahiro Tamura as Eizo
  • Toshiko Kobayashi as Omasu, the maid
  • Kappei Matsumoto
  • Kazuko Motohashi as Tamiko's mother
  • Nobuo Takagi as Tamiko's father
  • Kumeko Urabe as grandmother
  • Keiko Yukishiro as Tamiko's sister-in-law

Production

The flashback scenes were filmed using an oval-shaped mask typically associated with silent films.[4][5] According to Alexander Jacoby, this masking gives the film "an appropriately nostalgic tone."[5] Film critic Donald Richie describes the film style as representing "Meiji daguerrotypes."[3]

Reception

Jacoby rates She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum to be "among the most purely moving of Japanese films" despite its "occasional naivety."[5] He attributes this particularly to Kinoshota's "simple techniques," including "judicious choice of camera position," and to the excellent performances.[5] Richie regards the film as one of Kinoshita's "most successful" in his later style.[3] Joseph L. Anderson praises the film's photography, particularly the "rich blacks" and Kinoshita's "evocation of [the] area."[4] Jacek Kloiowski, et al., regard the film as "one of the most sincere and purest films of its type in Japanese cinema," noting that it marks a return to "pastoral lyricism" for Kinoshota after focusing his films on social issues for the previous few years.[6]

Awards

Cinematographer Hiroshi Kusuda won the Mainichi Film Award for cinematography in 1956 for his work on She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum and another Kinoshita–directed film, The Tattered Wings.[7] He also won the Blue Ribbon Award for cinematography for the same two films.[8]

References
  1. "She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum at the Japanese Movie Database" (in Japanese). Retrieved 21 January 2021.
  2. "She Was Like a Wild Chrysanthemum". IMDb. Retrieved 2014-09-21.
  3. Richie, D. (2012). A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. Kodansha. p. 142. ISBN 9781568364391.
  4. Anderson, J.L. (1982). The Japanese Film: Art and Industry. Pinceton University Press. pp. 279, 373. ISBN 9780691007922.
  5. Jacoby, A. (2008). A Critical Handbook of Japanese Film Directors. Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 9781933330532.
  6. Klinowski; et al. (2012). Feature Cinema in the 20th Century: Volume Two: 1951-1963: a Comprehensive Guide. Planet RGB. ISBN 9781624075650.
  7. "Mainichi Film Concours Awards for 1956". IMDb. Retrieved 2014-09-21.
  8. "Blue Ribbon Awards for 1956". IMDb. Retrieved 2014-09-21.
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