Kikuji is the scion of an Osaka merchant family whose traditional power is matrilineal. Instructed by his overbearing mother and grandmother to give them an heiress for the family business, he stands by helplessly as his wife is thrown out of the house for producing a son. Driven to a life of dissipation - his mistresses also fail to produce daughters - in the end he is just too tired to care.
Acting
Raizō Ichikawa's magnificent spiral from hope to hollow.
Direction
Ichikawa's surgical precision in domestic warfare.
Production
Claustrophobic Osaka interiors that breathe oppression.
Director
Kon Ichikawa
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kon Ichikawa and screenwriter Natto Wada were married collaborators who specialized in literary adaptations that exposed Japanese social hypocrisies.
The matrilineal merchant family structure was historically real in Osaka's merchant class, making Kikuji's humiliation a specific cultural nightmare rather than mere invention.
JP
