We all work hard for our children.
In the 40 years he spent working in the Japanese film industry between 1930 and 1969, Mikio Naruse directed 74 features, plus 18 shorts and segments of omnibus films. And in the 40-plus years I've been on this planet, I have not watched a single one of them until today. Clearly, I would have my work cut out for me should I decide to get serious about him, but Turner Classic Movies got the ball rolling by airing a pair of his films from the early '50s this past weekend.
Up first is 1951's Ginza Cosmetics, the slice-of-life portrait of an aging geisha named Yukiko (Kinuyo Tanaka) who works as a bar hostess (at a place called Bel Ami) in the Ginza district of Tokyo to support her son Haruo (Yoshihiro Nishikubo). Plot-wise, there isn't much to speak of. Naruse simply observes her as she goes about her business, whether it's dealing with a drunk who runs up a 2000-yen bar tab which he skips out on (and which she covers for the inexperienced hostess who let him run it up) or showing an out-of-towner (Yûji Hori) around as a favor to a former co-worker (Ranko Hanai). The only time something akin to drama rears its head is when Haruo goes missing for a few hours, upset about Yukiko reneging on her promise to take him to the zoo. This causes his mother and the neighbors no small amount of worry, but there's never a sense that the kid was in any real danger. To be honest, I was more worried about Yukiko in the scene where she hits up a notoriously stingy businessman for a loan to keep the Bel Ami afloat and he acts like this gives him license to do whatever he wants with her. Just as she's evidently done all her life, though, she takes care of herself.