The Actress and the Poet

Director Naruse Mikio's first talkie was a comic take on a "modern" marriage. The financial roles were reversed in this 1935 film.

Chieko was an actress and the breadwinner of the family while her spouse, Geppu, was a househusband who wore an apron and occasionally submitted poetry without much luck financially. The couple went along day in and day out as if all was normal. A nosy neighbor and the women in the neighborhood didn't understand it. While they liked Geppu, they didn't understand exactly what he did for a living. The men didn't understand why he did the laundry and cooking while his wife slept in late after rehearsals.

The nosy neighbor and her husband had a traditional marriage, yet it didn't insure happiness. She brow beat her husband into selling life insurance one night to their new neighbors. An act that would have consequences later on. The new neighbors were dressed in Western clothes and looked fabulously in love wanting only to be alone. Throw in a wannabe writer who owed everyone he could swindle and that was the main cast. Nose, the writer, was both catalyst and annoyance. I never did find his selfish antics amusing.

The turning point came when Chieko asked Geppu to run lines with her. The characters were a husband and wife fighting over the husband allowing a deadbeat friend to stay with him. As in real life the wife was the owner of the home and in charge financially. The two had never fought in real life and Chieko didn't know how to portray this part. Soon enough life imitated art and a real fight took place shaking up the status quo.

Spoilery comments below...



The acting was adequate, nothing very memorable. Overall, the film was well made. The story made nice arcs with the husband and wife. Geppu gently asserted himself and Chieko learned to treat her husband as more than an errand boy. The Nosy neighbors were brought in for contrast and comic relief. Nose was the irritating stone in their and my shoe. The real fight became physical which seemed out of place and unnecessary. The new neighbors' story took a dark turn which stood only to create conflict in the nosy neighbors' marriage.

For much of this film the couple's relationship seemed more modern than many recent marriages I've seen portrayed in Jdramas and movies. The wife was not berated by the husband and told repeatedly that her main job was to serve him and take care of the household. Their unique paradigm came across as fresh and I wonder how this was received early in the 20th century. The moments when he balked against their dynamic seemed natural when he felt underappreciated.

The ending felt like a step backwards in this progressive relationship, for a moment I had a flashback to the Stepford Wives movies, but I choose to believe Chieko stayed an independent woman, only one who paid more affectionate care of her husband instead of being shoved into a household role for which she wasn't made. And Geppu continued to be a loving househusband who learned it was okay to disagree with Chieko. Perhaps the marriage needed a shake-up to let each other know what was missing in their relationship. On a different day I might have rated this a 7, the ending, some dangling plot holes, and Nose's tiresome presence graded it down for me.

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