The Neighbor's Wife and Mine

"The Pig and the Pearl"

The Neighbor’s Wife and Mine was one of Gosho Heinosuke’s earliest films. The title of the play for which the main character was writing was called “The Pig and the Pearl.” Pretty much summed up the married couple in this story.

Shinsaku is walking on a country road and comes across a man painting a landscape. Because the area is quiet, he thinks it would be a great place to live and write. The “famous” writer asks repeated questions of the painter who becomes perturbed at the interruptions, and down right angry when Shinsaku disparages his artwork. The two end up in a childish fight broken up by a pretty woman from the village. Shinsaku rents a house for himself and his young family soon thereafter. To his chagrin, he finds that even quaint towns can be noisy at times.

Immature Shinsaku called his wife, a very young Tanaka Kinuyo, an “idiot” several times, berating her for not being quiet enough or the children not being quiet enough. When he asked, “Why did you have to have a baby?” I loved her reply, “You were responsible, too!” From there Shinsaku scolds her for backtalking him. He was malleable when people flattered him, but unable to use kind language with his wife. Kinuyo constantly nagged him to write so that they could pay their bills instead of him playing mahjong with the boys or hanging out with the neighbors. When he finally attempted to write, annoying sounds sent him into a tizzy. Perhaps all this was supposed to be a marital comedy, but I just found him ever grating and not remotely funny.

As this was Gosho’s first “talkie” he must have felt liberated being able to use sound. Scenes were filled with long minutes of people singing or playing in a band. An airplane was heard and shown which much like the music did little to move the story along. The movie felt less like a cohesive story and more like an experiment with songs and running gags. One song called, “Speed up!” at least gave Shinsaku a modicum of writer’s inspiration. It was also the mantra I repeated as the minutes dragged by.

21 April 2025

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