Electra Complex (PART 3 OF 4)

　
Electra Complex (PART 3 OF 4)





Are you saying, I've seen the above film?



Yes, you bet. You've seen the above film.

No, I haven't.

Yes, you have. You happened to view the above film on Saturday, July 2, 2011.

How come you're so sure about it?

...'Cause I've jotted down a memo in my journal, which says "Diane came to my computer and sat down beside me in Joe Fortes Library, then watched what I was intensely staring at." Now, Diane...do you remember?

Oh, yes...I remember, you were so absorbed in the Japanese film, which was a black-and-white old movie and I couldn't understand what the actors were talking about.

No, of course, you couldn't ... 'cause I was using an ear-piece and nobody else could hear the voices.

So, that was the "Late Spring" directed by Yasujiro Ozu, wasn't it?

Yes, it was.

I wonder What the story is like?

The story goes like this:

Noriko (Setsuko Hara)

Professor Shukichi Somiya (Chishu Ryu) has only one child, a twenty-seven-year-old unmarried daughter, Noriko (Setsuko Hara), who takes care of the household and the everyday needs of her father. On a shopping trip to Tokyo, Noriko encounters a family friend, Jo Onodera (Masao Mishima), who lives in Kyoto, and they go to a cafe together. Noriko knows that Onodera, a widower, has remarried, and she tells him that she finds the very idea of his remarriage distasteful, even filthy. Onodera, and later her father, tease her for such thoughts.

Shukichi's sister, Masa (Haruko Sugimura), convinces him that it is high time Noriko got married. Noriko is friendly with her father’s assistant, Hattori (Jun Usami), and Masa suggests to Shukichi that he ask Noriko if Hattori might be interested in her. When he does bring up the subject, however, Noriko just laughs: Hattori already has a fiancée he is about to marry.

Undaunted, Aunt Masa tries to serve as her niece’s matchmaker. She pressures Noriko to meet with a marriageable young man, a Tokyo University graduate named Satake who, Masa believes, bears a strong resemblance to Gary Cooper.



　　　Gary Cooper

Noriko declines, explaining that she doesn’t wish to marry anyone, because to do so would leave her father alone and helpless. Masa surprises Noriko by claiming that she is also trying to arrange a match between her brother and Mrs. Miwa (Kuniko Miyake), an attractive young widow known to Noriko. If Masa succeeds, it would mean Shukichi would have someone other than Noriko to care for him.

At a Noh performance, Shukichi nods to Mrs. Miwa, which triggers Noriko's jealousy. When her father tries to talk her into going to meet Satake, he tells her that he himself intends to marry Mrs. Miwa. Devastated, Noriko reluctantly decides to meet the young man and, to her surprise, gains a very favorable impression of him. Shaken by thoughts of her father taking a second wife, Noriko gives in and consents to her arranged marriage.

The Somiyas go on one last trip before the wedding to Kyoto, where they meet Onodera and his family. Noriko changes her opinion of Onodera's remarriage when she discovers that his new wife is a nice person.



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While packing their luggage for the trip home, Noriko asks her father why they can't simply stay as they are now – she is very happy living with him and marriage certainly wouldn’t make her any happier. Shukichi admonishes her, saying that she must embrace the new life she will build with Satake, one in which he, Shukichi, will have no part, because “that’s the order of human life and history.” Noriko asks her father’s forgiveness for her “selfishness” and agrees to go ahead with the marriage.

Noriko’s wedding day arrives.
Both Shukichi and Masa admire Noriko, who is dressed in a traditional wedding costume.



After the ceremony, Aya (Yumeji Tsukioka), a divorced friend of Noriko’s, goes with Shukichi to a bar, and he confesses to her that his claim that he intended to marry Mrs. Miwa was all a ruse to help persuade Noriko to get married herself. Aya, touched by his sacrifice, promises to visit him often. Shukichi returns home and faces the quiet night all alone.

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SOURCE:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PICTURES:
From the Denman Library

So, is this the Japanese Electra complex for a girl to love her father?



Yes...what do you think?

Well, I would say, it's quite peaceful. There doesn't seem to be any killing as in the Greek counterpart.

Yes..., yes..., Diane, you've got it. You see, the Japanese Electra complex is peaceful and romantic. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...

【Himiko's Monologue】



I like the Greek mythology.
How about you?

You see, I'm an associate professor in the women's college in Kyoto, lecturing "The Tale of Genji and the Japanese culture."
So, just as the Japanese classics, the Greek classics has interested me ever since I read the story of "Iliad" by Homer.

Why?

It's fascinating!
The story always brings me back into the ancient days.

I viewed a couple of movies in which Irene Papas starred.

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Irene Papas

Irene Papas (Greek Ειρήνη Παππά; born September 3, 1926) is a Greek actress and occasional singer, who has starred in over seventy films in a career spanning more than fifty years.

Irene Papas was born as Irini Lelekou (Ειρήνη Λελέκου) in Chiliomodi outside Corinth, Greece.

Papas began her early career in Greece (she was discovered by Elia Kazan), achieving widespread fame there, before starring in internationally renowned films such as The Guns of Navarone and Zorba the Greek, and critically acclaimed films such as Z and Electra.

She is a leading figure in cinematic transcriptions of ancient tragedy since she has portrayed Helen in The Trojan Women, Clytemnestra in Iphigenia, and the eponymous parts in Electra and Antigone.

She appeared as Catherine of Aragon in the film Anne of the Thousand Days, opposite Richard Burton and Geneviève Bujold in 1969.

She co-starred in The Trojan Women with Katharine Hepburn, who once said that Papas was "one of the best actresses in the history of cinema".

SOURCE:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Whenever I view the mythological film, I enjoy the ancient romance in the virtual world.
Oh, well..., the virtual world is one thing; romance is another.

Come to think of it, I've never met a decent man in my life.
How come I'm always a loner?
I wish I could meet a nice gentleman at the library in my town as Kato met Diane.
Well, they say, there is a way where there is a will.

Have a nice day!
Bye bye ...

(To be continued)