MOVIE REVIEW : The Melodramatic Passion of ‘Women Who Do Not Divorce’

Japan’s Shochiku Co. is surely the last major studio in the world still making the old-fashioned woman’s picture on a regular basis. Its latest, “Women Who Do Not Divorce” (opening Friday at Little Tokyo Cinema 1), would have been perfect for Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland back in the ‘40s. Its two meaty roles are in fact played by sisters, Chieko and Mitsuko Baisho, durable and talented stars who have never before appeared together on the screen.

As for the film itself, it is a grimly lurid melodrama of grand passion to which director Tatsumi Kumashiro brings the style and compassion of Douglas Sirk. Kumashiro and Jun Takada’s adaptation of a novel by Mikihiko Renjo stirs up a storm of emotions, but as delirious as the film gets, Kumashiro never lets it lurch out of control.

Not surprisingly, Chieko’s Miyoko and Mitsuko’s Yoshiko find themselves competing for the same young man, the boyishly handsome Keiichi (Kenichi Hagiwara). Miyoko is a bored, rich matron living in a mansion of somber, Western-style elegance in a remote port city where her husband owns a fleet of fishing boats. Yoshiko lives more modestly with her prosaic husband and runs a far-from-successful cabaret.

The two women and Keiichi have endless amounts of time to devote to their increasingly volatile triangle. You respect Kumashiro for taking their feelings seriously, but at the same time you wish they had at least an iota of detachment and humor about themselves. Their total self-absorption makes them pretty unsympathetic--and fairly silly. Yet in its emotionally extravagant way, the film is fun if for no other reason than it gives Chieko Baisho a chance to get out of that tea-cake shop in which she’s played the demure, long-suffering sister in the Tora-san series for nearly 20 years.

An actress of intelligence and integrity, Baisho deserves better than this, but at least she gets to turn in her shopkeeper’s apron for a glamour wardrobe and to be seen as a sexy wanton of mature beauty. Also, she’s well matched in histrionics by the sultrier Mitsuko, a fine actress in her own right.

Even so, “Women Who Do Not Divorce” (Times-rated Mature for adult situations, some discreetly presented sex and nudity) cannot really be recommended to anyone except avid readers of romance novels.

Two revivals, “Journey of Temptation,” a Frankie Sakai comedy, and “Karate Cop III” begin a one-week run Friday in Little Tokyo Cinema 2. Another revival double feature, “The Last Samurai” and “Professional Killers No. 1,” opens March 11.

‘WOMEN WHO DO NOT DIVORCE’

(‘RIKON SHINAI ONNA’)

A Shochiku presentation. Executive producer Kazuyoshi Okuyama. Director Tatsumi Kumashiro. Screenplay Kumashiro, Jun Takada. Camera Yoshihiro Yamazaki. Music Takayuki Inoue. Associate producers Ro Miura, Hisao Nabeshima. With Kenichi Hagiwara, Chieko Baisho, Mitsuko Baisho, Isao Natsuyagi, Miki Jinbo. In Japanese, with English subtitles.

Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes.

Times-rated: Mature.