The opening shots of this movie firmly puts it in the Ginza district of Tokyo back in 1951, with its distinct landmark of the Clock Tower, and serves kind of like a documentary snapshot of the district with following the kid Haruo in and around the area, before finally we get to meet his mom Yukiko (Kinuyo Tanaka),a bar hostess struggling to make ends meet.
Directed by Mikio Naruse, this movie doesn't have any big moments, and feels like a capture of the relatively mundane life of Yukiko, in her luckless meeting with various men who seem always to disappoint, and her taking care of her only son. These are acute observations that represent that slice of life, and doesn't over-dramatize or wallow in melodrama and the theatrics, which is quite commendable, given the usual tendency for movies of the genre to lapse into. Things happen as a matter of fact, right up until the tense and anxious moments of looking for a runaway kid.
Kinuyo Tanaka brings forth a quiet, stoic demeanour in her Yukiko, being unable to change her fate of being a single mother, and she could make you wring your heart as we experience together with Yukiko a potential moment of probably romance with a young man flit away, despite initial reluctance to get acquainted and help out in his stay in Tokyo. I thought it was quite magnanimous of her to do what she did, and felt that it was really sad for one to resign to her fate without any inclination to challenge it with the hope that things might be for the better.
If you prefer your movies quiet, with the dignified presence of a star actress at her element, then perhaps Ginza Cosmetics would be a launchpad for anyone interested in following the filmography of director Mikio Naruse, and of his many film collaborations with Kinuyo Tanaka.
Plot summary
Yukiko is a middle aged geisha working at the Bel Ami bar in the Ginza district of Tokyo. She is the single mother of young adolescent Haruo, the product of a liaison with a former customer who she thought was going to be the love of her life, but who walked out on her when he found out she was pregnant. When Yukiko is working, she usually gets Kyôko, one of her younger colleagues, to look after Haruo, that is whenever she isn't letting Haruo run loose on the streets. Haruo knows the routine that he is not to return home if he sees men's shoes outside the door, they usually belonging to married Mr. Fujimura. Yukiko feels she owes Fujimura who helped her when she was pregnant, but in reality she has long paid Fujimura what support he has provided her. She evaluates her life and future as a geisha as the men in her life seem increasingly to take advantage of her good nature and as her boss contemplates selling the bar. She contemplates whether happiness is too late for her to achieve, either in security for her and Haruo, and/or in true love, which she knows cannot or will not happen with anyone she meets at work as history has shown and as customers will have a certain expectation of her as a geisha.
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A Nutshell Review: Ginza Cosmetics
Affectionate, sentimental, humorous
This is a gentle, affectionate take on a middle aged bar hostess, struggling to bring up a child alone and facing financial, sexual and end of career issues, as well as the implied disapproval of society. There is plenty of humour, though, and acute observation of people and relationships in their everyday lives.
Apparently slow initially, one gets gradually drawn in to care for these essentially good characters, even the weak and slightly unreliable ones (generally men).
The set pieces of bar life are particularly well observed. And the mutual respect and simple good manners of Japanese society as depicted is always fascinating to Western eyes.
As ever with Naruse, the camera-work is so effective one is hardly conscious of it as one engages with this picture of a determined but dignified struggle by a virtuous woman.