A Wife Confesses
妻は告白する
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
On trial for cutting the rope that held her husband, a wife's real crime is wanting another man.
Ayako Takigawa is on trial for murder. Climbing in the Northern Alps with her husband, Ryokichi, an associate professor of pharmacology, and a young man, Osamu Koda, she was roped between them when Ryokichi slipped from the rock face. Both hung from the rope, and Koda, at its end, held them until his hands bled. Ayako took out a knife and cut the rope between herself and her husband. Ryokichi fell to his death; she and Koda survived.
The court must decide whether this was murder or a lawful act of necessity. The trial lays out her life. A war orphan raised in poverty by relatives, she did chores for Takigawa while she studied pharmacy; overwork and hunger brought her to the edge, and he, a man old enough to be her father, pressed her into marriage. He treated her as a housekeeper and would not let her have children. Koda, who works for a drug company, had urged Takigawa to insure his life; Takigawa took out five million yen. The prosecutor, Kasai, says she killed for the money and a lover. As the trial goes on, Ayako and Koda fall in love, and he breaks off his engagement to Rie, the daughter of a client firm's president.
Ayako is acquitted. She takes the insurance money and moves into a smart apartment; Koda says the money should go to the university. Then, relieved, she tells him the truth: she could not bear to watch him die, and she could not forgive her husband, who was shaking the rope to save himself. Koda is appalled. She should not have saved him, he says, and leaves. Soaked by rain, Ayako comes to his office and begs to see him even once every few years. He asks whether someone who can kill can love, and walks away. In a washroom in the building, she takes her own life. Rie tells Koda that he never loved anyone, and that Ayako was the only one who truly loved him.
Starring
Ayako Wakaoas Ayako Takigawa
A war orphan married to a much older, controlling professor, on trial for cutting the rope that held him on a mountain.
Ayako Takigawa’s story
Ayako, a war orphan studying pharmacy, was worn out and hungry when Professor Takigawa pressed her into marriage; he used her as a housekeeper and denied her children. On the rock face, with her husband hanging below her and Koda's hands bleeding above, she cut the rope. At her murder trial the prosecutor says she killed for the insurance and a lover. She and Koda fall in love, and he breaks off his engagement. Acquitted, she moves into a smart flat on the insurance money and tells Koda the truth: she could not let him die, and could not forgive her husband for shaking the rope to save himself. Soaked by rain, she begs him at his office to see her once every few years. He walks away, and in the building's washroom she takes her own life.
Hiroshi Kawaguchias Osamu Koda
A young drug-company employee who was on the rope that day, loves Ayako, and cannot bear what she confesses.
Osamu Koda’s story
Koda calls at Professor Takigawa's house for a drug company, and it was he who urged the professor to insure his life for five million yen. On the mountain he was last on the rope, holding husband and wife until his hands bled. During the trial he falls in love with Ayako and breaks off his engagement to Rie. After the acquittal he tells her the insurance money should go to the university. When she confesses that she cut the rope to save him and could not forgive her husband, he tells her she should not have saved him, and leaves. When she comes to his office, he asks whether someone who can kill can love, and turns his back. Rie tells him that he never loved anyone, and that Ayako was the only one who truly loved him.
Eitaro Ozawaas Ryokichi Takigawa
Ayako's husband, an associate professor of pharmacology who treated her as a servant and would not let her have children.
Haruko Mabuchias Rie Munakata
Koda's fiancée, the daughter of a client firm's president, who comes to recognise what Ayako's love was.
Hideo Takamatsuas Prosecutor Kasai
The prosecutor who argues that the rope was cut for the insurance money and a lover.
Why it matters
A Wife Confesses is a courtroom drama in which the law is the mildest of the judges. What the court must settle is technical: murder, or a lawful act of necessity. What the film asks is about desire: whether a wife may want a man other than her husband, and whether a woman who acted on that want can ever be believed. Ayako is judged by the prosecutor, by the reporters and onlookers who crowd the trial, and at last by the man she saved, who cannot live with the kind of love that saved him. Behind her stands a marriage the film shows as servitude: a poor orphan pressed into marrying a much older man, used as a housekeeper and denied children. Ayako Wakao won Kinema Junpo's best actress award for this and another film of the same year. The film leaves open whether Koda's recoil is conscience or cowardice.