The Upbeat Life of Constant Apprehension

I see a few people have claimed that 1952's Mother (おかあさん) is upbeat for a Mikio Naruse movie. I guess the music is a little more whimsical and there are a few amusing moments earlier in the film but it's still the kind of desperate tale of common economic woes that Naruse excelled at. This "upbeat" Naruse movie has two deaths during the course of the story and many of the relationships and desperate circumstances we see are due to deaths that occurred before the narrative begins. There is a definite charm to this one, though, with Kinuyo Tanaka in the title role and especially due to Kyoko Kagawa as her eldest daughter.

Kagawa, better known for her roles in Sansho the Bailiff and Tokyo Story, is usually pretty somber but here she gets to be a vivacious and petulant teenager with pigtails. She narrates the film, fondly describing her self-sacrificing and tireless little mother.

Toshiko (Kagawa) has an older brother at the start of the film who escapes from a sanatorium to die at home, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, begging their mother (Tanaka) to sleep beside him one last time. Toshiko has another sibling, a little girl named Chako, and their cousin, a little boy named Tetsu, stays with them. His father was killed in World War II and his mother, Noriko (Nakabe Chieko), is unable to care for him as she struggles to find a career of her own. But when financial trouble deepens for the film's subject household, they're forced to take seriously an offer from a neighbouring family to adopt Chako.

Tanaka's husband runs the family business, a laundry, and, when he falls ill, his friend played by Daisuke Kato shows up to help out.

Like most of Naruse's films, the story is an endless give and take of tension as new misfortunes or sudden small strokes of luck create a delicate balance. In this case, whether or not the characters come out ahead by the end is open to your interpretation, and obviously many feel that they do. I would argue the film actually ends under a cloud of doom, though. But your mileage may vary.

Mother is available on The Criterion Channel.

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A thousand steps were taken past the coin.
The longest mollusc shrank to fit a ball.
A smiling idol jumped from out the loin.
We hung a folded picture 'long the wall.
Suspicions start as salmon jump to mouths.
The busy forest glowed with simple songs.
The '80s synth ascends as Heaven bows.
The sleeping fish was laid between the prongs.
The shifting crowd produced an extra star.
A total six dismissed the leading rank.
They're lining glass across the lacquered bar.
Let's carry cakes to feed the money bank.
The snug and tiny flee before the spray.
The smug and smarmy flea adored the clay.