Manji
卍
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A bored wife and a fellow art student consume each other and everyone around them — Tanizaki's swastika of desire.
Sonoko Kakiuchi is telling her story to an old writer. When her husband, Kotaro, opens a law office in Osaka, she begins studying Japanese painting at a women's art school. The principal remarks that the face of the Kannon she has painted does not look like the model, and gossip names its real original: Mitsuko Tokumitsu, the beautiful daughter of a textile-company president, who studies Western painting there. The rumour that the two are lovers brings them together, and it comes true. Mitsuko calls her 'sister', and Sonoko neglects her husband for her.
Then Sonoko learns that Mitsuko has a man, Eijiro Watanuki, who calls himself her fiancé. Hurt, she tries to break with Mitsuko, but forgives her when Mitsuko fakes an illness to win her back, and they meet at an inn behind Kotaro's back. Watanuki proposes that he and Sonoko share Mitsuko, and the two swear to be as sister and brother, sealing the pledge in blood. Then he shows it to Kotaro. Sonoko confesses everything. The two women stage a suicide attempt, and half conscious, Sonoko sees Mitsuko in her husband's arms. Kotaro, too, is now in love with Mitsuko, and the three agree to live happily together.
It cannot hold. Each suspects the other two of meeting in secret, and Mitsuko has the couple take sleeping pills every night before she leaves them, so that they cannot be together without her. Husband and wife grow weak and love her more. Then Watanuki, who had secretly photographed the pledge, gives it to the newspapers, and the three of them are exposed. Facing ruin, they resolve to die together before the Bodhisattva Sonoko painted. The next day Kotaro and Mitsuko are dead, and Sonoko is alive. Suspecting the two of arranging it to leave her behind, she cannot bring herself to follow them. Even now, she tells the writer, when she thinks of Mitsuko she feels more longing than hate.
Starring
Kyoko Kishidaas Sonoko Kakiuchi
A lawyer's wife in Osaka who falls for a younger woman at her art school, and afterwards tells the whole story to a writer.
Sonoko Kakiuchi’s story
Sonoko takes up Japanese painting when her husband, Kotaro, opens a law office in Osaka. Gossip that her Kannon has Mitsuko's face, and that the two are lovers, brings them together, and the rumour comes true. Mitsuko calls her 'sister', and Sonoko neglects her husband. Hurt to learn of Mitsuko's fiancé, Watanuki, she tries to break with her, but forgives a sham illness and swears a blood pact with Watanuki to share her. When he shows the pledge to Kotaro, she confesses everything. After a staged suicide attempt she sees Mitsuko in her husband's arms, and the three agree to live together. When the papers expose them, they resolve to die together before Sonoko's painting. Only she wakes. Suspecting the other two of leaving her out, she cannot follow them, and she still longs for Mitsuko.
Ayako Wakaoas Mitsuko Tokumitsu
The beautiful daughter of a textile-company president, who draws Sonoko, her husband and her own suitor into her orbit.
Mitsuko Tokumitsu’s story
Mitsuko studies Western painting at the art school where rumour says her face is the model for Sonoko's Kannon. She tells Sonoko the painted body is not like hers and shows her own, calls her 'sister', and lets the rumour of their love come true. Yet she also has a man, Watanuki, who calls himself her fiancé. When Sonoko tries to break with her, Mitsuko fakes an illness to win her back. After the women's staged suicide attempt she sleeps with Sonoko's husband, Kotaro, and the three agree to live together. Every night before she leaves, she has husband and wife take sleeping pills, so that they cannot be together without her. When Watanuki gives their pledge to the newspapers, she joins the pact to die before Sonoko's painting. The next day she is dead, with Kotaro.
Eiji Funakoshias Kotaro Kakiuchi
Sonoko's husband, a rather ineffectual lawyer who tries to end the affair and is drawn into it himself.
Kotaro Kakiuchi’s story
Kotaro has just opened a law office in Osaka when his wife, Sonoko, starts at art school, and he watches her neglect him for Mitsuko. When Watanuki shows him the blood pledge, he makes Sonoko tell him everything and demands that she end it. The women stage a suicide attempt to make him understand, and while his wife is half conscious, he sleeps with Mitsuko, and goes on doing so. The three agree to live together. Soon each suspects the others of meeting in secret, and every night Mitsuko has him and Sonoko take sleeping pills before she leaves; they weaken and love her more. When Watanuki gives the pledge to the newspapers, he joins the pact to die before the Bodhisattva his wife painted. The next day he is dead, with Mitsuko, and Sonoko is alive.
Yusuke Kawazuas Eijiro Watanuki
Mitsuko's self-declared fiancé, obsessed with pledges and contracts, who makes Sonoko swear a pact in blood.
Why it matters
Manji was the first film of Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's 1928 novel Quicksand, scripted by Kaneto Shindo, with title lettering by Tanizaki himself, who died the following year. In 1964 a major studio, Daiei, made desire between two women the centre of a film. What interests it is less whether such love is permitted than what happens when love becomes a contest for possession: pledges sealed in blood, sleeping pills handed out to keep a married couple apart, a scandal in the papers, a death pact with one survivor. The issue it raises is who holds power in desire, the one who is loved most or the one who loves most. Sonoko ends alone and still longing, unable to know whether she was loved or only used.