CIFF 34 Review – Villon’s Wife
Title: Villon’s Wife (Viyon no tsuma)
Director: Kichitaro Negishi
Year: 2009
Genre: Drama
Format Reviewed: Film (@CIFF 34)
On the opposite end of the spectrum from Bare Essence of Life is Villon’s Wife (and hey, it rhymes). Villon’s Wife is going to be the complete opposite feel of Bare Essence, with traditional characters, a classic setting, and a serious, realistic, adn dramatic story.
Villon’s Wife lives up to it’s name. It is a period piece set in late-WWII of Japan, and focuses on the wife of an often drunk and even suicidal writer who gets caught stealing a large sum of money from a local food & spirits joint. The rest of the story follows her as she sways between being a loyal wife and leaving him for a better life. The story is somewhat sad because of the traditional values in the wife’s character. Like the ‘good’, loyal wife that she is, she is very forgiving of just about everything her husband does, including cheating on her and stealing her money. Without giving in to cultural relativism or feminism, the movie is better watched knowing that this is the “traditional role” for the wife at this time and place, at least before the war.
The acting, storytelling, development, pacing all are quite good until the very end of the movie. It’s easy to fall in love with Sachi, the wife, as several men in the film do. Tadanobu Asano delivers another great performance as the meandering, drunk villon. The characters, besides the villon, feel a lot like some of Ozu’s, albeit more modern and less subtle. Much of the story is very lively, with Sachi either working at the bar to pay off her husband’s debts. It slows down considerably, as you might expect in a melodrama. The story even falls apart a little bit at the end when it tries to pull everything together. Some of it feels out-of-place or unexplained, and I was left wondering what happened to one character all-together.
There definitely seems to be some underlying message in Villon’s Wife. I read somewhere that it is supposed to be about Japan changing after the war. This can definitely be felt near the end of the movie where we see girls with lipstick running away with GI’s. If anything, it shows the faults and benefits of Japan’s traditional double standard roles of husband & wife in the transition to an industrial society.
Villon’s Wife is a great movie for anyone interested in ‘old life’ in Japan, though I think you have to also be on board for the drama. It is beautifully shot and one of the most believable WWII-era settings I’ve seen in a while. It’s not really a romance picture, but it is decent as a slow, relationship drama. Without ruining the ending, it can keep you guessing. There are several different ways it could have gone, and if the director had taken a more Ozu-esque open ending, it probably would have been a perfect fit. But the story clearly is leading to the definitive ending given.
Rating – 4 /5
Leave a Reply