What lifts this film from being merely good to arguably great, is that never is the heroine of the film portrayed as a victim. She is not at the whims of a cruel paternalistic and sexist society. She has her opportunities, but ignores some, and squanders others. Her rationale, as example, for turning down Komatsu's proposal of marriage- the second such proposal she's received in a brief period, is simply silly, and a cover for her own willful pride and arrogance. If he is, to her, the embodiment of the Ginza, and she must thus reject his advances, then why does she go back to the lifestyle she claims to detest? She, therefore, is the sole architect of her life's stasis, if not failure. No one else. No thing else. So, the film is a sad one; not as sad and downbeat as Theo Angelopoulos's Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow, but perhaps even more depressing because, whereas the female heroine of that film fully earns the viewers' sympathies for all she has suffered needlessly, Naruse's heroine, by virtue of helping to fix her own sad state, does not even garner the grace of pity from most viewers. Her motto is, 'I hated climbing those stairs more than anything. But once I was up, I would take each day as it came.'
Trite, but admirable. And these are qualities that many can relate to. Mama's Sisyphan life is of her own making, but that is also, in an odd way, an admirable thing. She is not a mistress, not a prostitute, just a working woman trying to survive. And, unlike Cabiria, at the end of Nights Of Cabiria, the odds are that Mama will not just make it, but prosper, in her own way. This, in fact, puts her in league, along with other similarities, with the widow, played by Setsuko Hara, in Tokyo Story. Hers is surely a lonely life, and a frustrating one, but it is not one void of hope. Mama may not be the best example of what a woman of singular means can do by exercising her free will, but a freely deficient life is, in many, if not most, aspects, a superior life to those who cede their volition for material gains. Mama has seen this close up; so do the film's viewers. Her choice may not be ours, but it is hers, and, in The Ginza of old, it seems, that meant a lot. It still does, to those in the arts, and those in art itself.
Trite, but admirable. And these are qualities that many can relate to. Mama's Sisyphan life is of her own making, but that is also, in an odd way, an admirable thing. She is not a mistress, not a prostitute, just a working woman trying to survive. And, unlike Cabiria, at the end of Nights Of Cabiria, the odds are that Mama will not just make it, but prosper, in her own way. This, in fact, puts her in league, along with other similarities, with the widow, played by Setsuko Hara, in Tokyo Story. Hers is surely a lonely life, and a frustrating one, but it is not one void of hope. Mama may not be the best example of what a woman of singular means can do by exercising her free will, but a freely deficient life is, in many, if not most, aspects, a superior life to those who cede their volition for material gains. Mama has seen this close up; so do the film's viewers. Her choice may not be ours, but it is hers, and, in The Ginza of old, it seems, that meant a lot. It still does, to those in the arts, and those in art itself.