Learn from Experience, Part I (1937) User Reviews (3)

Nice, American-Styled Melodrama - But Why in Two Parts?

[topitimo-829-270459 · 7/10 · 26 September 2019]

Naruse Mikio directed four films in 1937. The atmospheric and dark Nadare (Avalanche) is my favorite of these, whereas Nyonin aishu (A Woman's Sorrows) was a minor work in comparison to his other 30's catalog.

The terribly-named Learn From Experience is not a preachy film as the English title would suggest, but a traditional and a bit western-styled melodrama. The storyline brought to mind silent romances starring Lillian Gish, and later Warner Brothers weepies with Bette Davis. The lead character is Toyomi (Irie Takako), a traditional girl who is in love with Shintaro (Takada Minoru), a young man who is aiming for diplomatic service. Shintaro wants to marry Toyomi and they spend the night together, causing her to become pregnant. Afterwards however, Shintaro's parents refuse to let their son marry a girl from a lower class and insist, that he marries a girl of their choosing, Yurie (Takehisa Chieko). Shintaro has to make a difficult decision, but in the end he is weak, and marries the richer girl. The second half of the film follows Toyomi and Yurie becoming friends...

The narrative is easy to follow due to the small number of characters. Both films are about 75 minutes, the normal length for a Japanese films at the time. Since especially the second half drags on a little, I see no reason why Naruse couldn't have cut this into one two-hour film. A more compact duration would make this more watchable.

For a Naruse film, this is very story-driven, which might have to do with the source novel. As always, the director shines in the depiction of women, and Toyomi, her best friend, as well as Yurie are all nicely fleshed-out characters. I liked the way Naruse uses wardrobe to portray the women's personalities. Toyomi is constantly wearing a kimono to show, that she is an old-fashioned girl. Her best friend has western-styled clothing, and Yurie's outfits are straight out of a Joan Crawford movie.

In the beginning, the two girls discuss how marriage to a woman is always some kind of a gamble, since you never know what kind of a man you end up with. Shintaro, who is played by Takada Minoru, who shined in some of Ozu's early silents, is not a very strong-willed or interesting character. This is a woman's film, at times very pleasant to watch, but it really could be shorter.

Men Must Marry And Women Must Weep

[boblipton · 7/10 · 29 October 2019]

Minoru Takada and Takako Irie are lovers and in love. They want to get married, but he has not told his parents. Now they want him him in an arranged marriage to Chieko Takehisa. Irie tells Miss Takehisa he will refuse and heads home. There, though, he hears all the sensible reasons for the marriage. He doesn't tell them about Miss Irie. Instead, he agrees to the meeting, planning to reject her. However, he discovers that he likes Miss Takehisa a lot. He tells her about the affair. She is not shocked. She says that if he can let Miss Irie down easy, she will marry him. Yet, when he returns, he avoids his former lover.

Mikio Naruse's movie is a story about older customs and habits.... and men's indifference to the suffering of women. Miss Irie wears traditional Japanese garb, while Miss Takehisa is very modern. Miss Irie wants to be married to Takada, while Miss Takehisa would like it, but it's not the be-all of her life. And Takada is a suave, emotionally lazy user. It's a first-rate potboiler of the sort of movie that Naruse would develop into an art.

First-rate potboiler

[kerpan · 8/10 · 13 June 2005]

Kafuku I and II / Learn from Experience, Parts I and II / literally Ups and Downs (Mikio NARUSE, 1937)

This 2-part film romance (clocking in at just a bit under three hours) was based on a story by noted author Kikuchi Kan (who also founded Japan's one of Japan's most prestigious literary prizes, named after fellow author Akutagawa). It is a surprising blend of real and unreal. Everyone in the film seems to come from marvelously rich families -- and lives in very large houses and apartments. And yet the human interactions are generally realistically (and credibly) depicted.

The central character here is Toyomi (played by Takako IRIE, star of Mizoguchi's "Water Magician), a rich young woman in love with Shintaro (Minoru TAKADA), a rich young man. Unfortunately, Shintaro's father is in the process of arranging a marriage for him with Yurie (Chieko TAKEHISA), the scion of an even wealthier family. In order to avoid this, the two young lovers flee to Tokyo to live together. When Shintaro comes back to proclaim his intent to marry Toyomi, his father browbeats him into attending the long-arranged marriage meeting with Yurie. While Shintaro is back home, Toyomi goes on a vacation trip with her closest chum, Michiko (Yumeko AIZOME). At a class reunion, Toyomi is to distressed (at not having heard from Shintaro for so long), she doesn't go out on the town with her classmates. Michiko, however, runs into Shintaro and Yurie (also out on the town), and pulling him aside, demands an explanation. When Toyomi ultimately learns of her betrayal, she flees back home -- but getting a less than warm reception from her father, returns to Tokyo, where she takes a job as a junior shop-girl at ritzy dress shop. And this, covers (briefly) just the first half of the story.

In the second half, we discover that Toyomi is pregnant -- and while Shintaro and Yurie are on their extended honeymoon, she bears his child, a girl named Kiyoko. She is supported in adversity by Michiko -- and gets considerable moral support from not only her own mother but also from Shintaro's mother and siblings. Even more surprisingly, Yurie strikes up a friendship of sorts with her. When Yurie learns that the child is Shintaro's, she convinces Toyomi that it would be best to let Shintaro (and her) raise Kiyoko, so Toyomi can get on with making a proper life for herself. Tearfully, Toyomi agrees. Sometime later, Michiko goes to visit Toyomi -- and sees her at work, as a kindergarten teacher.

This film portrays an amazingly Americanized Japan. Reflections of American culture abound -- advertising signs, cars, clothes, music. Of the younger generation, Toyomi alone remains steadfastly traditionalist, wearing only kimonos -- until her final scene (where she too is dressed in the latest of Western attire). Equally surprising, while the film is circumspect in its depiction of the forbidden premarital relationship, there is no hint of moral disapproval on the part of the film maker. Visually, this is presented in a largely straightforward manner -- but with an usual freedom of camera movement at times (almost as if showing off new, more mobile cameras). This might not be a cinematic masterpiece for the ages -- but was an interesting and entertaining piece of popular entertainment.