Tashiro coincidentally meets his best friend Sugimoto in a bar very close to the apartment in which Sugimoto’s wayward wife is found dead. Although Tashiro is not a suspect in the police investigation, he is racked with guilt and confesses to his wife, Masako. In an effort to further relieve his tortured sense of guilt, he then confesses to Sugimoto. Neither his wife nor his friend can believe that he could have been involved.
Direction
Naruse's static frames trap characters in their own guilt.
Acting
Kobayashi's crumbling masculinity is physically painful to watch.
Writing
Confessions that clarify nothing — dialogue as weapon.
Director
Mikio Naruse
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Naruse's final film in Academy ratio; he switched to widescreen immediately after, as if this claustrophobic frame was a coffin he needed to close.
Based on Edward Atiyah's 'The Woman in the Wardrobe,' but Naruse strips the British farce entirely, replacing comedy with his signature 'melodrama of blocked desire.'
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