• 女の園 (Garden of Women)

10/12/23 (Thurs)

Kinoshita Keisuke’s unusual 1954 work, which he wrote and directed, was ranked second in that year’s Kinejun poll only to yet another Kinoshita film, his smash hit Twenty-Four Eyes (and amazingly above The Seven Samurai, Chikamatsu Story, Late Chrysanthemums, Sansho the Bailiff, and An Inn in Osaka, among others). It is not nearly in the league of any of those and may have been helped by its sensational theme and starry cast. Still, it is extremely interesting as a portrait of a certain age. Oshima Nagisa says that this is the piece that inspired him to become a director, which makes sense considering the politics of his works. I assume the garden (園) is a reference to a school academy (学園), though the source novel is in fact called Artificial Garden (人工庭園).

The film portrays a women’s finishing school disguised as a university, a place where women go to learn the proper tools for finding work and/or snaring a husband. The exceedingly strict regulations of the snobby school and dictatorial rule of the headmistress lead to the suicide of a key character, sparking a rebellion among the students.

The movie opens with a group of girls calling for revolution, but the story soon shifts its focus to four key characters. Yoshie (Takamine Hideko) is there to escape an arranged marriage by her social-climbing father in hopes of somehow linking up with her poor true love. She was forced to work for three years due to family circumstances until her father managed to turn things around, making her older than the other students. She is desperate to study and do well, but is held back by her long time out of school and the less serious attitude of her classmates. She is under severe pressure not only by her father but by the dictatorial headmistress (Takamine Mieko), who won’t allow her to study after hours or in a quiet spot and opens her private letters.

Tomiko (Kishi Keiko) is a cynical student who responds to being upbraided by rolling her eyes and carrying right along. She wants change in the school but only for her own benefit, and is not inclined to join major movements that will take her time away from tennis.

Akiko (Kuga Yoshiko) is the daughter of a wealthy businessman who helps fund the school, which shields her despite her radical ideas. She wants to foment a revolution against the traditional authoritarian thinking of the establishment and gain more freedom for the students, which the school brushes aside facilely as Communism. (One of its key tenets is to protect the girls from Communist thought; it calls Akiko out for her interest in dialectic materialism.) Her nemesis is another left-winger Toshiko (Yamamoto Kazuko), who sees Akiko as a fake since she can always fall back on her parents if the movement goes poorly.

The interaction among these students and the head teacher is the core of the film. The headmistress wields her power quietly and confidently, such as skewering her students while calmly performing a formal tea ceremony. Her devotion to the most petty and arcane rules, such as calling out one student for wearing a colored ribbon in her hair, is almost sadistic. She won’t allow students to leave the premises without permission or wear sleeveless dresses even in their rooms. A male administrator (Kaneko Nobuo) tries to be fairer and more flexible, but finds it difficult to oppose the strong-willed teacher.

The most interesting of the girls is Yoshie. She wants to better herself, but her tearful entreaties to the teacher for help go unanswered. She experiences a similar environment at home with her nouveau-riche father, who only agrees to put off the high-class marriage he has in mind for her and let her go to school so that she can become an even more attractive lure for a prospective husband. She gets no help from her brother, who is equally status driven. Her poor boyfriend Sankichi (Tamura Takahiro), who adores her, begs her to leave her school and family and come with him, promising to do whatever it takes to support her. The pressure on her is immense. One of the most charming moments comes when she climbs to the top of Himeji Castle and waves her handkerchief as he waves his from the departing train. It is unclear whether they can even see each other – she is filmed in a long shot from the train’s perspective where the handkerchief is barely visible – but it offers an appealing shorthand for their feelings for one another.

The activities of the various characters come together in a tragic ending, but the real theme is the clash between the rigid prewar generation and the society coming of age after Japan’s ignominious defeat in the war, which upended the people’s faith in the old values. Though way too long at 2’20”, the film offers a fascinating look at the times despite its concentration on comfortably bred women. Some critics have seen close similarities with a contemporaneous film (which I haven’t seen) from Germany, the other big loser in the war, but the situation here seems very Japanese in its handling of the characters. While the confrontation between the fragile Yoshie and hardened Nurse Ratched-like teacher stands out, all the relationships are of interest.

The Takamines (no relation) both do stellar work in an all-around great cast, with Kuga also a standout. Kinoshita won the big awards that year for his screenplay, and while sentiment would probably be different now, he deserves plaudits for the sheer ambition of the work. A worthy film.