Mikio Naruse's Sound of the Mountain

Eureka's Masters of Cinema series is a great source for the dvd foreign film junkie. Based in England, this label has quietly built a fine catalogue of old movies, most of which have never been available for home release, let alone dvd. Over the holidays I ordered the anticipated 3 dvd set of Mikio Naruse's films, and received it around the New Year. The quality, annotation and commendary rival Criterion -- the only caveat is that their releases are PAL, so you need a universal dvd player with a good built in PAL converter to see these. Sound of the Mountain is one of the three films offered in the box set, based on the novel by Yasunari Kawabata. It is a story of a loveless marriage, the husband (played by Ken Uehara, a major male lead) not caring for his wife (played by legendary actress Setsuko Hara), and her growing relationship between her and her father in law (played by Yamamura). The marriage is in name only; and both have learned to hide their disgust towards each other. When her husband's sister suddenly moves into the family home, child in tow, the wife's self made world slowly crumbles as she sees in her sister in law the possible outcome of her own marriage. On top of that, she is also pregnant, and struggles with the concept of bearing her husband's child. The only meaningful person in her life is her father in law, who tries to rectify his son's bad behavior by investigating the son's adulterous relationship with a mistress, and trying to reform his bad ways, but it is too late. The wife decides to have an abortion. The final scene of the film, a famous walk in the park sequence, shows the wife (who has now left the house) and the father in law in a state of resignation as to their lot in life, a note of fondness between the two and a goodbye. It is one of the most lyrical and moving scenes in cinema.