Aijo no keifu (1957) Reviews

• Peyton Place Comes to Hokkaido

  richardchatten2017-11-06

  Based on a best-selling novel by Yasuko Harada, 'Elegy of the North' is directed and acted for all its worth by Heinosuke Gosho and a top-notch cast, shot atmospherically on location around Kushiro on Hokkaido, to the accompaniment of a score by Yasushi Akutagawa worthy of 'All That Heaven Allows'. Yoshiko Kuga is initially quite engaging as the tomboyish Reiko, but her petulant and self-centred disregard for others quickly starts to grate, and the film remains rather basic while taking itself far too seriously.

• Western imitation

  godgetsmepumped2015-09-04

  Yoshiko Kuga has an interesting role here -- an unmarried young woman, part tomboy, mostly rebel, and mentally... strange. I could not always understand the motives behind her actions. The plot is straight melodrama -- she takes up with a married man (the great Masayuki Mori) whose wife is also having an affair. And it is all presented in the most Western way. Orchestras swell, characters actually embrace and kiss (oh my), women are independent (although still destined for ruin), houses are Western-style, and characters even speak French and English phrases. Gosho ('Where Chimneys Are Seen') was a good director, but if I wanted a Hollywood melodrama, I would watch a Hollywood melodrama. I watch Japanese films for that undefinable Japaneseness. I don't watch them to see an imitation of what I'm trying to get away from. 6/10.