Wife Be Like a Rose (1935)
Directed by Mikio Naruse
The first Japanese talkie to ever screen in the United States was famously first met with hostility. These complaints were clothed in descriptions of what is now associated with some of the best qualities of early Japanese melodrama: characters interested in social maneuvering, carefully composed long takes, and plenty of references to pre-cinematic entertainment. In Naruse’s typical heart-rending fashion, the economically comfortable Kimiko (Sachiko Chiba) attempts to win back her distanced father for her obsessive haiku-crafting mother. However, she finds him with a new family in a rural village, helping them out of poverty. With neither parent willing to make any final decision, Kimiko must decide her father’s fate. Zach Lewis (May 9, 7pm; May 17, 2pm at MoMA’s “Early Japanese Talkies”)