Sound of the Mountain (1954)

"You don't understand how women feel"

Sound of the Mountain was a complex story of a father coming to terms with his adult children’s failing marriages. “Success as a parent depends on the success or failure of your children’s marriages. That has me worried.”

Shingo and his son, Shuichi, work together and live under the same roof. Shuichi has a mistress and a girlfriend, along with his long-suffering wife, Kikuko. Shingo tries to make his daughter-in-law’s life better and gives her positive attention whenever he can. The rest of the family thinks they are hiding the fact that Shuichi has a mistress, but given that he is out late every night, or doesn’t come home, she’d have to be an idiot to not know. Shingo’s daughter, Fusako, comes home with her two small children, having run away from her husband who is also involved with another woman. She doesn’t receive much comfort or help from her family and goes to stay with other family. Kikuko realizes that Fusako is trapped. She has no job, no money, and will eventually have to return to her husband. This observation will play a key role in Kikuko’s upcoming decision about her marriage with Shuichi.

This family drama focused on Shingo as he was nearing the end of his life and realizing how he utterly failed as a parent. His son was selfish, thoughtless, and a womanizer. He realized that Shuichi has murdered Kikuko’s heart and that his son was completely incapable of love. His daughter was miserable and trapped in a loveless marriage with two children. Shingo tried to patch the relationships with tape. Nothing he did made any of the relationships better. He and his wife vaguely discussed older couples who committed double-suicide when their usefulness was done.

While the film sounded like a melodrama it highlighted women’s plights, how children and lack of money kept them tethered to terrible husbands. The men casually felt it was their right to have sex and relationships outside of marriage. Four women made bold choices that went against social norms. One woman had an abortion to have the option to be free, another decided to have a child out of wedlock, another woman had to leave her son behind when she left her marriage, and another still had to decide what she was going to do. The decisions weren’t easy and had terrible costs, but these women refused to be cowed. Director Naruse Mikio didn’t offer any easy solutions, he simply showed how the patriarchy didn’t benefit these women.

Yamamura So and Hara Setsuko did a splendid job as the conspiratorial in-laws who bolstered each other’s spirits. Quite honestly, the film often made me angry as it unflinchingly showed how the men treated the women in their lives. I would have rated this a 10 if the unfaithful husbands had been hung up like piñatas and beaten for the suffering they caused their wives. Sadly, that wouldn’t have been realistic. I’ll have to take solace in a 1954 film being bold enough to discuss difficult subjects and giving the women the courage to make their lives the best they could under the conditions they lived in. Good job, Naruse.

23 February 2025

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