Hanakago no Uta

"Forgive the past...or not"

Song of Flower Basket aka Hanakago no Uta was a 1937 love square starring a young Tanaka Kinuyo as the side doing all the heavy support of this geometric melodramatic comedy.

Keizo’s tonkatsu restaurant does a brisk business due largely to his comely daughter who attracts the foot traffic and cook Lee’s extraordinary fried pork cutlets. Lee doesn’t only love frying up tonkatsu, he also loves Keizo’s daughter Yoko. Two university students frequent the place---Hotta Nenkai who is destined to become a Buddhist priest and Ono Susumu who is a poor student with few options. Hotta is Ono’s wingman and helps Ono and Yoko (also called Oyo and Ojo) spend time together. Because her mother died over a decade ago, Yoko’s aunt takes charge of matchmaking and sets up a potential husband who is a doctor. Complicating matters, the waitress is desperately in love with Lee. Are we up to a pentagon now?

This story was flimsily held together by miscommunications and misunderstandings. My comprehension might also have been impaired by the aged film’s blurriness. It was often hard to tell people apart in numerous scenes. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Ryu Chishu’s voice and sure enough he played Hotta. Having finished all of Ozu’s films, I rarely see him anymore. Tanaka Kinuyo was in charge of making Yoko not seem like the dullest knife in the drawer. Yoko was 23, on the cusp of spinsterhood, but she still acted very young and naïve. Ono was more experienced, having frequented hostess clubs prior to Yoko, and yet he also wasn’t very sharp. Never really in the running, the doctor visited the restaurant a few times to scout out his potential fiancée. Personally, I would have enjoyed spending time at the bar with Hotta who seemed to be the most engaging of all the young men, and the only one without a love interest. A brief note, thirteen-year-old Takamine Hideko played Yoko’s younger sister. She breezed in and out of two scenes, barely enough to acknowledge her existence.

What was actually interesting to me was the reversal of purity shaming. Yoko was devastated by Ono’s past and called him on it. Usually, it’s the female characters who have to be concerned about having had any other relationships. Of course, men being men in the 1930s, they all drew ranks and covered for each other. I did like that the father allowed Yoko to choose her own mate, even if he caught some backlash from her about it when she began to doubt that choice. He also stood his ground to his sister and stated, “This shop does not sell Oyo.” Though in practice she was what brought people in so that the food could seal the deal.

Clocking in at 69 minutes, Song of Flower Basket might not have been an in depth look at relationships but there was love and heartache aplenty. It also made me hungry for tonkatsu. If you enjoy old, really old, Japanese films and can tolerate the blurriness it might be one to try.

16 February 2026

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