In a snowy mining town in the north, there is a bar where Akiko Chihaya can get all their money out of three men with her sad tale about her child and her money and her artful weeping. It soon becomes clear that it's all acting. She's a self-centered woman who has never even sun a lullaby to her own daughter. Yet as the long, cold winter starts to give way to a hesitant spring, are there signs that more than the frozen river are thawing? Or is it more acting?
Hiroshi Shimizu was just making the transition to sound as a director, and the plot is shown visually, with moving shots and careful editing. The dialogue seems at times to be mostly scene setting and commenting on the action, like titles and a benshi in Japan. Miss Chihaya gies a lovely performance in which she indicates more than words or action possibly could..... or perhaps I am reading emotions into her performance, as I was intended to.
There were homegrown full talkies in Japan for a couple of years when this one came out, so, along with earlier work in the US, there was no need to reinvent cinema for a new technical standard. Even so, this is a a fine production with a lot of heart as well as technique.
