A Hen in the Wind (1948)- Ozu

 

A young mother played by Tanaka Kinoyo is raising a toddler by herself in a time of economic hardship just after the war. The husband is away at the warfront and Tanaka is making do by selling her kimonos and making dresses. It is time of hardship for everybody and there are stark images of poverty and urban degradation. The motif of a large steel structure under uncertain construction makes numerous appearances invoking a sense of economic strife.

Ozu knits together a narrative of the woman's life through repetitions of images of the narrow entry to the woman's house, the lower floor where the landlord lives with his family and the young woman's apartment upstairs.

A sudden calamity befalls the young family when the son develops an illness that requires hospitalization. To pay the hospital's bills, the woman feels she has no option but to engage in a night's work of prostitution. Soon after, the husband returns and Hiroshi is unable to keep the secret from him.

I enjoyed Ozu's characterization of the loving, gentle and honest Tanaka. Her worldly friend and confidant provides a counter-foil to her. There is a scene of a picnic near the river-bank during which they are reminiscing of old times. Tanaka remembers wishing for a house in the suburbs living with her husband and a dog of a particular kind. All the dreams seem foolish and Tanaka is unable to bear talking about them. Her friend urges her to not forget her dreams.

The husband is played by Suji Sano, who is now one of my favourite actors. He plays the gentle, sensitive husband tormented by his wife's secret.

There are many memorable scenes in the film. The tormented Suji sitting by the river with the prostitute who offers him her lunch is a key scene which causes some acceptance of the situation. Another memorable scene is when the husband in a state of anger is interrogating his wife about the one-night prostitution and is then overcome with desire for her. There is little tenderness in the prelude to the sex and hints at exacerbation of his torment.

In the end the resolution happens when he finds a job for the young prostitute. In this way, he is able to diminish his sense of powerlessness. A final dramatic episode is when he returns home and overcome with anger, he is unable to carry through with his decision to forgive his wife. In a moment of violence, he pushes her and she falls down the stairs. She is hurt but still apologetic, and this helps them reach a final mutual forgiveness.

The violence and callousness of the final scene is a bit of a jarring note, but it seems that Ozu needed it for the final resolution.

This could be one of my favourite Ozu films. Ozu's films tend to stay in the mind like great novels and you replay them and note details you hadn't paid sufficient attention to before. Life in Ozu's films is full of disappointments and yet in the acceptance, there is grace and wisdom.