Jûkichi Uno is a tubercular patient, recovering at his home. Toshiro Mifune, his doctor, takes the bus to tend to him and meets Uno's wife, Kinuyo Tanaka. He does not know who she is. He thinks her a local, and asks for directions; she takes him into the house. As time goes on, they develop a yen for each other, and Uno suspects the worst.

Keisuke Kinoshita's drama offers a very un-Japanese view of morality, almost a Jewish one. For the characters in this drama, appearances are very little. What matters ultimately is what people do, not what they think or feel. Even so, those feelings are very important, and sometimes determine what they do; Miss Tanaka runs a fancy jewelry store in the Ginza. She has a fabulous diamond wedding ring, easily six carats, yet she leaves it off in her scenes with Mifune. These trigger resentment, self-loathing and suicidal thoughts in Uno; hope and a desire to abandon his responsibilities to his patient in Mifune; and shame in Miss Tanaka. The question, in the end, is not what they feel, or what others may believe. It is the actions of the people involved which are the only things which are important.

Once upon a time, "women's film" was a very popular movie genre. I'm not talking about romantic comedies but rather dramas that were aimed at middle-class and affluent women. Usually they were about wives and their spouses or families. The best known examples here in America are probably the Douglas Sirk melodramas from the 1950's. They were also pretty popular in Japan and here we have what was probably a typical example. An Engagement Ring (the Criterion print on Hulu calls it Wedding Ring) is about a successful business woman played by Kinuyo Tanaka. She is the president of a department store in Tokyo but she has to commute to a remote town every weekend to attend to her husband who has been sick with tuberculosis for years. Trouble arrives in the form of a hunky new doctor, played by Toshiro Mifune.

I have to admit I am not a big fan of the genre. I do like some of Sirk's movies, but this film is nowhere in their league. It does have some nice shots and it is interesting to see Mifune in a rather subdued role. But overall the story is not very compelling and the movie as a whole is rather dull. Completists of old Japanese films or of the director might enjoy it, but I think most people would be rather bored by it.

WEDDING RING / ENGAGEMENT RING (Lit.) (KONYAKU YUBIWA). Viewed on Streaming. Video restoration/preservation = eight (8) stars; cinematography = seven (7) stars; score = seven (7) stars; sound/looping = four (4) stars; audio restoration/preservation = one (1) star. Director Keisuke Kinoshita (also credited as the screenplay writer) offers up a triangular tale of unrequited love involving a wife (who has married well and now runs a large family-owned jewelry store in downtown Tokyo),her sickly husband, and a newly-minted doctor who is treating her husband. The plot revolves around whether or not the wife and the doctor will have an affair. To describe this tedious teasing story line as being quaint by today's standards is by far an understatement. The film is also way overlong to the point of further inducing audience indifference at about the halfway point. Some lead actors are miscast. Actress Kinuyo Tanaka is a bit too old for the role of the young wife (she looks the oldest of all the leads) and a little chubby to boot (her double chins are visible in some shots). Actor Toshirô Mifune turns in an amateur performance and clearly needs the expertise gained by having more films under his belt before tackling the doctor part (but he doesn't mumble!). Cinematography (narrow screen format, black and white) is fine with some good tracking shots (especially between rooms with separating walls removed). Subtitles/translations are okay. Signs and written text are translated. Restoration/preservation is both very good (video) and totally terrible (audio). It sounds like the audio track was completely ignored. Age deterioration noise and artifacts are ever present, very loud, and a major distraction (this is one of the worse sound tracks--if not the worse--I have encountered for a commercially re-released old movie!). Sound dubbing is hit and miss. There is no audio until the opening credits are over! Jumping into and splashing about in water (of which there are many scenes) are soundless. Score is way over the top and seems more appropriate for a major, sweeping epic. (Then again, the Director may be trying to inject some life into his limp film?) Avoid this creaking Shochiku programmer. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.