Ai yori ai e

Shûji Sano has taken up with Sanae Takasugi, but his upper-class family disapproves. He says he doesn't care. They move in together and while she works, he tries to write. He is short-tempered with her, and tells her she is stupid not to leave her. Uncle Takeshi Sakamoto knows he is trying to get a job, and so arranges for one.... on the condition that he leave Miss Takasugi. As members of his family, one by one, meet her, they are impressed by her sincerity. Only the stubborn pride of Sano's father rules the family, making the match impossible.

This short feature by workhorse director Yasujirô Shimazu boasts some excellent performances by skilled actors. At less than an hour, it is clearly a B movie, and I found its plot to be too straightforward to be interesting. Miss Takasugi plays a good girl, she works hard, so much so that the clerk of the apartment building they live in calls Sano a leech..... and so I found him, a surly, insulting leech, desired by his family solely because he is the eldest son and the heir, and my Miss Takasugi because.... I'm not sure why. There isn't enough charm on his side to make the relationship understandable to me.