Ballad of a Worker (1962)

"An old shirt belonging to our son who is away; my wife washes it and hands it to me to wear."

Ballad of a Workman aka Ballad of a Worker was a loving ode to parents who sacrificed for their children to have better lives. Time jumps were often accompanied by stoic ballads and haikus. The film also showed the struggle many people faced as Japan rebuilt their economy after WWII.

Our story starts in 1946 when Yoshio returns home from the war, welcomed by his wife and son who had feared he was dead. Torako had moved to the countryside as the bombings devastated Tokyo. The only job Yoshio can find is working on the roads. As the years pass and he is promoted, Torako is paid to do housekeeping for the workers’ center. They don’t earn much but make sure that their son Toshiyuki is educated. When Toshiyuki leaves for Kyoto to attend college, the little family is hit hard by the burden of their poverty.

This film showed the progress of the Nonaka family from 1946-1962. Yoshio had to slowly learn to deal with his miserable job in ways other than drinking. Torako was the rock of the family, the one person who held things together. She worked a demanding physical job in addition to her own household duties but never complained or drank herself to sleep. Takamine Hideko and Sada Keiji were a great duo for the roles of hard-working parents. Toshiyuki dealt with stressors in Kyoto that his less educated parents could scarcely imagine. Yamamoto Toyozo may have been less experienced yet he still managed to convey Toshiyuki’s stress of being his parents’ great hope and reason for living.

The drawbacks to the yearly time jumps with accompanying heavy-handed ballads was that I felt like I missed out on more of the day-to-day lives of the family. They often bounced from one crisis to the next. Despite the family’s troubles, the parents kept moving forward refusing to be dragged down by their privation. Their quiet dignity was moving, even when they hesitated to accompany Toshiyuki to his new school for fear of embarrassing him. The son’s growth and learning to accept them as they were was also quite heartwarming.

Ballad of a Workman could have done with less ballad and more tender moments between Yoshio and Torako. The film showed that the job of parenting is never done. Even after children grow up, there is always something to worry about and plan for. What could have been an overly melodramatic story ended up being a heartfelt slice of life about a family with a dream for their son to have a better life.

“Together we’ve walked through the years. In times of laughter and tears. Our hands are roughened but you and I. We shall walk, foraging ahead with smiles.”

15 June 2025

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