Karumen junjô su (1952) watch online HD

Very funny movie. I did not enjoy that much the first installment in the Karumen's series but this one just hit the spot for me. The actresses are all wonderful. The men are all good too. Women in this movie really call the shots. The main character is wonderful in some of the scenes. It was wonderful to have a sight to old Tokyo. I guess anyone who is interested in Japanese movies, history or just a movie to spend a funny time would enjoy this. I do not understand why I am forced to write 10 lines, specially after the robot spoiled all my paragraphs so here you go, no need to keep on reading because I am just blabbering to comply with that silly condition.

It looks like CARMEN COMES HOME was enough of a success that director Keisuke Kinoshita followed it up, with Hideko Takamine and Toshiko Kobayashi repeating their roles as a couple of ditzy strip-teasers who think they're artists. Some time has passed. Miss Kobayashi has had a baby with a communist, who has abandoned her and Carmen is taking care of her. However, when they are trying to abandon to baby in front of a home inhabited by modern artist Masao Wakahara Masao Wakahara, Miss Takamine is caught. She falls in love with him, even though he's supposed to marry a divorcee in order to split a three-million-yen dowry offered by her mother, who's running for the Diet in the first post-War election on a platform of spiritual values and rearmament. Mr. Wakahara has just paid off the mother of his illegitimate, who wants more money, and everyone gets confused with everyone else. Miss Takamine can't strip any more, and every time she gets a job, the wives of her employers keep getting her fired.

The movie looks to have been a troubled production. The script is far more serious than the first movie, with some real contemporary issues mixed into the comedy, and real feminist issues were written into the script, probably to better accommodate Miss Takamine's screen persona. DP Hirosho Kusuda seems to have compensated for the lack of color by shooting almost all the shots at an angle, perhaps to suggest to the audience that the whole movie is cockeyed, and after a hundred minutes of screen time, the movie ends with the promise of a third movie to settle matters -- and I can find no sign of one having been made by any of the principals. Certainly they all worked together again, but on different projects.

There are many good parts of this movie, but I am uncertain whether it is particularly good as a whole. Certainly it is a transition piece, both in terms of Japanese society and the star's career arc, and makes reference to those transitions in the script. The start is heartlessly funny, but the later parts are more problematic for me. It was made two-thirds of a century ago for the Japanese market.

Viewed on Streaming. Cinematography = four (4) stars; subtitles = four (4) stars. Director Keisuke Kinoshita's attempt to quickly (too quickly?) cash in on his 1951 hit KARUMEN KOKYOU NI KAERU (CARMAN COMES HOME) is pretty much an embarrassing disaster. The script delivers really funny lines here and there, and the narrative is packed with zany possibilities. Perhaps in the hands of different (and more disciplined?) film makers it could have become a minor comedy classic. Kinoshita squanders the considerable talents of A-List actress Hideko Takamine. The movie suddenly comes to a dead stop leaving most/all plot elements unresolved and in limbo. Some tacked-on text seems to indicate that the original idea might have been to make a trilogy (or a series?). Perhaps the budget may have been seriously over run, and the studio (Shouchiku) pulled the plug? Or Takamine refused (wisely) to make yet another one? And/or the movie may have sunk without a trace at the box office? Questions for further research! Song lyrics seem to usually advance the story line (or subplot). Cinematography (narrow screen, black & white) can be distracting if not a flat out eye sore. The Director seems fixated on tilting the camera at odd angles between scenes and often while a scene is being photographed. Sometimes zooming is thrown into the mix! (Mercifully, this eye strain is limited to roughly the initial third of the film.) Subtitles (in white) are hard enough to read against white backgrounds, but just about impossible to decipher when the camera is dynamically tilting and zooming. Scene lighting is OK. Restoration has not removed age/wear artifacts from the opening credits and early scenes. Recommended only for the most die-hard of Takamine fans (who also have an ophthalmologist on standby)! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.