For years I avoided seeing this film because I thought the title implied it was a sexist drama about women forced to be submissive. Finally seeing it now, a more accurate title would be More than One Way to be a Wife. This short film (approximately 75 minutes) conveys more about relationships than most American films do in two hours. And it is still relevant, now 82 years after it was released. How many current films will still be relevant in 82 years? Not many.

I highly recommend this film to anyone interested in marriage and relationships and in the misunderstandings that can occur when people are not honest with each other about who they are and what they need to be happy in life.

I will not reveal more about the plot, just let it unfold and see for yourself....

A young middle-class woman sets out to a remote mountain village in Nagano to bring her estranged father back to Tokyo where his presence is needed to fulfill some pressing social obligations - chief among them a meeting between her parents and the father of her intended bridegroom. Her own father, though, would rather stay with his common law wife - a former geisha - and their two children despite their relative poverty and "disgraceful" circumstances. Father is happy prospecting for non-existent gold in the rivers of his adopted rural home, while his selfless and devoted 'wife' ekes out a living as a hairdresser.

Back in Tokyo, Etsuko, the abandoned wife and Kimiko's self-absorbed and pretentious mother publishes mournful haiku for her long lost husband and patiently waits for his return. Will Father return to his "rightful" place with his "legitimate" family or will he forsake them for his mistress and their two children? Naruse Mikio's comic and heart stirring melodrama 'Wife! Be Like a Rose' offers a surprising and refreshing take on familiar Japanese themes on 'self-sacrifice' and filial devotion.

The Japanese film "Tsuma yo bara no yô ni" was shown in the United States with the title, "Wife! Be Like a Rose!" or "Kimoko" (1935). It was directed by Mikio Naruse.

This film was the first major film directed by Naruse, but it's clear that he had already mastered the art of cinema. Naruse's films are typically melodramas about middle-class or working-class people. His movies, like this one, are often tinged with sadness.

Sachiko Chiba plays Kimiko Yamamoto, a young office worker who has a modern outlook and dresses in western fashion. She lives with her mother, who is a talented poet. However, her mother is depressed, and most of the poems she writes are about her husband, who has left the family and moved to the countryside.

Kimiko travels to her father's village, in order to convince him to return home to his wife and to her. When she meets with her father, she learns that matters are not at all what they had seemed.

I wish I could write more about this very interesting plot, but the enjoyment of this film depends upon the unexpected events that occur during and after Kimiko's trip. I have no intention of spoiling the movie for those reading this review.

We saw this film at the Dryden Theatre, in an original 35mm print that is owned by The George Eastman Museum. It's hard to believe that this movie is apparently unavailable in the U.S. on DVD. In fact, I hesitated to review it, because what's the point of a review if no one can see the film? However, the movie was excellent, and possibly it will play in a Naruse retrospective in your location. If so, don't miss it!

Note: In 1937, two years after the film was made, Naruse married the star of the film--Sachiko Chiba. Sadly, life followed art, and they were divorced three years later.