Naomi (A Fool's Love)
痴人の愛
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
In 1960s Japan, an engineer takes in an eighteen-year-old coffee-shop waitress to mould into his ideal woman, and becomes her slave — Tanizaki's parable of fetish.
Joji Kawai, an engineer at an oil refinery, is known at work as a model of propriety: he does not drink, smoke or gamble. In secret he has taken in Naomi, an eighteen-year-old waitress from a coffee shop he used to visit, and bought a house for the two of them. Her parents, who run a bar, are glad to be rid of her. Joji means to polish her into his ideal woman and then marry her, and he photographs her constantly. It is Naomi who seduces him, and they marry.
He pays for piano and Italian lessons. Naomi learns little. She demands expensive clothes and jewellery, and at a party given by her Italian teacher, Joji watches her flirting with two students, Kumagai and Hamada. A colleague tells him she has been working her way through the men of her class. Unable to shake his suspicion, he asks the doctor next door to watch her, and learns she is sleeping with both students. After a quarrel he throws her out.
He burns his diary and his photographs of her and resolves to be done with her. Hamada comes to tell him that Naomi now moves from man to man and is treated as a whore by the young men around her. Then she appears at the door, saying she has come for her clothes. She keeps coming back, changing in front of him and refusing to let him touch her; they are just friends now, she says. At last he breaks. If only she will never leave again, he will do anything she asks; he will even be her horse. She asks whether he will forgive her if she sleeps with other men, and he nods. In the last scene she rides on his back and holds him, telling him that she, too, has no one but him.
Starring
Michiyo Yasudaas Naomi
An eighteen-year-old waitress whom Joji takes in to shape into his ideal wife, and who shapes him instead.
Naomi’s story
Naomi waits tables at a coffee shop until Joji takes her into a house he has bought for them; her parents are glad to be rid of her. She seduces him, and they marry. She learns little from the lessons he pays for, asks for clothes and jewellery, and sleeps with two students, Kumagai and Hamada. When Joji learns the truth, he throws her out. She moves from man to man, treated as a whore by the young men around her. Then she comes back for her clothes, changes in front of Joji and will not let him touch her. When he begs her never to leave again, she asks whether he will forgive her other men. He nods. In the last scene she rides on his back, saying she, too, has no one but him.
Shoichi Ozawaas Joji Kawai
A strait-laced refinery engineer who plans to mould a young woman into his ideal wife and ends up at her feet.
Joji Kawai’s story
At the refinery Joji is known as a man with no vices. In secret he has bought a house and taken in Naomi, meaning to polish her into his ideal woman before marrying her; he photographs her and pays for her lessons. She seduces him, and they marry. When rumours reach him that she is sleeping with students, he has the doctor next door watch her, learns they are true, and throws her out. He burns his diary and his photographs of her. Then she keeps coming back for her clothes and changing in front of him. He breaks: if she never leaves again, he will do anything she asks, even be her horse. He nods when she asks if he will forgive her other men, and in the last scene she rides on his back.
Masakazu Tamuraas Nobuo Hamada
A student in Naomi's circle who later takes pity on Joji and tells him what has become of her.
Isao Kuraishias Masataro Kumagai
A university student from Naomi's Italian class who becomes her lover behind Joji's back.
Asao Uchidaas Dr Hanamura
The doctor next door, whom Joji asks to keep watch on Naomi.
Why it matters
Naomi comes from Jun'ichiro Tanizaki's 1924 novel A Fool's Love, whose heroine gave Japanese the word 'Naomism'. Yasuzo Masumura moved the story into the Japan of the late 1960s and made Naomi eighteen; in the novel she is fifteen when Joji takes her in. At its centre is a man's plan to own a woman by making her: an older man choosing a young woman, paying for her lessons, photographing her body and calling it love. The film is merciless to him, and often comic, as the project turns round and she learns to use his desire the way he meant to use her youth. Whether the ending is a defeat or a kind of honesty is left open: two people who have stopped pretending about what they want from each other, and a man who has agreed to be ridden.