The Dancer (Maihime) (1951)

☆ ☆ ☆

The Dancer (Maihime) (1951) – M. Naruse

Just before his big successes with Meshi (1951) and Okaasan (1952), Mikio Naruse made this soapy family drama, scripted by Kaneto Shindo (who went on to direct films of his own).  We enter the story in the middle, with the professor father returning from time away to find the ballet teacher mother in the midst of an affair and the two nearly grown children distant and distracted with their own lives.  Mieko Takamine portrays wife/mother Namiko as full of angst and guilt, unable to decide whether to abandon her cold and angry husband for the gentle caring Takehara-san or to continue to suffer in order to support her children in the name of family stability.  Atypical for Naruse, this is a well-to-do family who have “high culture” tastes and don’t seem to be suffering economically (although there is talk of the war having interfered with their goals and dreams).  Daughter Shinako (played by Mariko Okada who went on to work for Ozu) is following in her mother’s footsteps as a ballet dancer, realizing that she may be the vessel into which Namiko has poured her crushed hopes and dreams.  A few minor subplots take us nowhere and at last there is a major confrontation at the dinner table – an unusual emotional eruption for Japanese families that makes it even more consequential.  And then the ending is happy/sad/perplexing.  It all feels slightly off-key for Naruse who, at his best, was a master of family melodrama and its emotional implications for women.