Karami-Ai (The Inheritance) (1962)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Karami-Ai (The Inheritance) (1962) – M. Kobayashi

Kobayashi’s darkly comic and noirish tale of the quest of a dying executive (Sô Yamamura) to find his three illegitimate children and determine whether to include them in his will pulls no punches in its examination of human greed.  Perhaps his capricious act, which deliberately disadvantages his younger wife (Misako Watanabe; with whom his relationship is cold and distant), inspires her to plot with her ex-lover (Minoru Chiaki; also in her husband’s firm) to steal more of the inheritance (a sizeable sum). But this doesn’t explain why the dying man’s lawyer (Seiji Miyaguchi) and his assistant (Tatsuya Nakadai) also plot to gain some (or all) of the money, after being charged with finding one of the children (all of whom turn out to be less than virtuous themselves). Seemingly, he isn’t a very nice man. Only the executive’s loyal secretary (Keiko Kishi, first billed) stays pure-of-intention even as her boss takes advantage of her and treats her selfishly. With numerous surprising plot twists and a shifting set of alliances, the finale still comes mostly as a shock, even though director Masaki Kobayashi’s decision to frame the bulk of the story as a flashback gives something away (the surprise is in how she did it rather than that she did it).  Gorgeous in its black and white cinematography and nicely directed in that slightly ostentatious early 60s manner, this fills the gap between the director’s masterpieces: The Human Condition trilogy and Hara-Kiri.