Pale Moon
紙の月
The Moonlight essay
CinemaPale Moon, and the First Money She Ever Spent as HerselfRead the essayStoryline
The whole story, ending included.
A bank clerk embezzles millions for a young lover; the film treats her fall as a form of freedom.
In 1994, just after Japan's bubble has burst, Rika Umezawa, a childless housewife, is promoted from part-timer to contract employee at a branch of Wakaba Bank, visiting well-off clients at home. Her husband, Masafumi, takes little interest in her; he quietly scorns the matching watches she buys to celebrate and brings her an expensive one from Shanghai. At the house of a crabby old client, Hirabayashi, she meets his grandson, Kota, a university student. They run into each other again at a station; she follows him onto a train, and into a hotel.
Hirabayashi lets slip that Kota is in debt over his university fees, and warns her away from him. Rika steals two million yen of the old man's money by tricking a young teller, and lends it to Kota. She tells her husband she will not follow him to his new post in Shanghai. The thefts widen: an old woman's savings, forged certificates printed at home, a hotel suite every weekend, a car and a flat for Kota, who quietly drops out of university and grows used to being kept. Two women watch her: Aikawa, a young teller who takes what she wants and is having an affair with the deputy manager, and Sumi, a severe veteran clerk who goes through the files and finds certificates that do not exist.
Rika holds off the deputy manager by threatening to expose his affair. But in the flat she bought for Kota she finds another woman's clothes, and it is over. Her cards are stopped; she tries and fails to seduce old Hirabayashi. Sumi visits her clients one by one and uncovers the whole sum. Alone with Sumi in a meeting room, Rika explains: she once rubbed at the moon with her finger and it vanished, so it was fake, and fake things can be broken. She smashes the window, asks Sumi whether she wants to come too, and when Sumi lets go of her arm, jumps and runs.
Some time later, in a market in Thailand, she comes face to face with a man with a scarred face: the boy she once sponsored as a schoolgirl, with money stolen from her father's wallet. Police appear, and she disappears into the crowd.
Starring
Rie Miyazawaas Rika Umezawa
A housewife working as a bank's door-to-door saleswoman, whose affair with a student turns into embezzlement on a vast scale.
Rika Umezawa’s story
Rika follows Kota, a client's grandson, onto a train and into a hotel. When she learns he is in debt for his fees, she takes two million yen of his grandfather's money and lends it to him, and she lets her husband go to Shanghai alone. The thefts widen: an old woman's savings, forged certificates printed at home, a car and a flat for Kota. Then she finds another woman's clothes in Kota's flat, and it is over. Sumi uncovers the whole sum. Facing Sumi, Rika says that the moon she rubbed away with her finger was fake, and fake things can be broken; she smashes the window and runs. Later, in a market in Thailand, she meets the boy she sponsored as a girl, now a man with a scarred face, and vanishes into the crowd as police appear.
Sosuke Ikematsuas Kota Hirabayashi
A client's grandson, a university student in debt, who becomes Rika's lover and lets her keep him.
Kota Hirabayashi’s story
Kota first meets Rika at his grandfather's house, when the old man touches her shoulder from behind and Kota asks if she is all right. He follows her onto a train after a chance meeting at a station; the next time, she follows him, and they go to a hotel. Since his father lost his job he has borrowed from loan sharks for his fees, and he means to quit university and work. At first he refuses her money, then accepts two million yen as a loan he promises to repay each month, believing she is rich. Soon he takes the hotel suites, the car and the flat as his due, and quietly drops out. When Rika finds another woman's clothes in the flat, he comes to her house and apologises through the door, and it ends there.
Satomi Kobayashias Yoriko Sumi
A severe veteran clerk at the branch who trusts rules over people and uncovers Rika's fraud.
Yoriko Sumi’s story
Sumi is a veteran clerk whom the deputy manager, Inoue, would like to be rid of. Told that she is to be transferred, she suspects him and starts going through old files, and finds that certificates Rika processed exist nowhere. She reports it to Inoue, but Rika escapes punishment, so Sumi carries on alone, visiting Rika's clients one by one and asking to see what Rika gave them. Every certificate is forged, and the sum has grown enormous. Alone with Rika in a meeting room, Sumi tells her that money cannot make anyone free. Rika smashes the window and asks whether she wants to come too. Sumi, holding her arm, lets go, and Rika runs.
Yuko Oshimaas Keiko Aikawa
A young teller who follows her appetites, has an affair with the deputy manager and tells Rika nobody misses money they never use.
Seiichi Tanabeas Masafumi Umezawa
Rika's husband, who takes her for granted and accepts a posting to Shanghai.
Renji Ishibashias Kozo Hirabayashi
A wealthy, crabby old client, Kota's grandfather, whose money Rika takes first.
Why it matters
Pale Moon is a crime film about a woman who discovers that money can buy her a self. Rika is the good wife, the trusted saleswoman, the girl who once stole from her father to give to a poor child, and the film suggests that her virtues and her crimes grow from the same root: giving as a way of being loved and of being free. Daihachi Yoshida added two women who are not in Mitsuyo Kakuta's novel, a colleague who whispers that nobody misses money they never use and a veteran who insists that money cannot make anyone free, and between them the film stages its argument. Rie Miyazawa won the best actress prize at the Tokyo International Film Festival, unanimously, and the Japan Academy Prize. The question it leaves is not whether she will be caught but whether the life she ran from was any less of a fake.