It will be a clash of small town and big city
values—and boy, will the small town enjoy it. The prodigal daughter once known
as Kin Aoyama apparently found fame and fortune dancing in Tokyo under the name
Lily Carmen. She is an artiste, but her art involves G-strings. That does not
mean she and her comrade Maya Akemi can’t be scrupulously serious about their
dance. They are indomitably upbeat, but their visit might be more than her
staid father can handle in Keisuke Kinoshita’s big screen musical Carmen Comes Home (trailers here), the very first Japanese color feature, which
screens this Friday at the Japan Society, as part of their newly re-launched
Monthly Classics series.
Even if Carmen/Aoyama has not amassed a
fortune per se, she has made enough of a go of it to periodically send money
and gifts home to her family. Her loyal sister Yuki is in awe of her, but old
man Shoichi Aoyama instinctively distrusts the modern western influences she
has no doubt absorbed. However, thanks to the intercession of the school
principal, an ardent advocate for Japanese culture, he reluctantly consents to
her visit. Nobody could miss Lily Carmen when she arrives. She is the one
wearing the bright red dress. Clearly, Kinoshita was going to get his color
film’s worth from the wardrobe and spectacular mountain scenery.
Naturally, Carmen and Akemi attract all kinds
of attention in town, including the leering local mogul. Yet, the two women are
more drawn to more plebeian townsmen, like the young school teacher Akemi
impulsively falls for. Similarly, Carmen admits she still carries a torch for the
now married Haruo Taguchi, who was blinded during the war. As the composer of
dirge like odes to his small town, Taguchi is more in line with the Principal’s
idea of a real Japanese artist. Unfortunately, Carmen and Akemi’s va-va-voom
will inadvertently disrupt Haruo’s grand premiere performance, causing no end
of angst.
Hideko Takamine was one the greatest screen actresses
in the history of cinema, but she is best known for achingly tragic films like
Mikio Naruse’s When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and Yearning, as well as
Kobayshi’s The Human Condition, so it
is nice to see her get the chance to kick up her heels a little. She is utterly
charming as the bizarrely naïve Lily Carmen. Yet, underneath the goofy joy, she
gives the subtlest hints of sadness. Nobody else could have pulled that off.
