"The Woman in the Typhoon Area" 1948 movie review, part one

 

 Release Date: September 6,1948   Length: 68 minutes  Subs by electricEmotionz

Director: Hideo Oba, based on the novel by Ruiji Yanagisawa

 For these movie reviews try have them for lesser known films, you won't see any from the Godzilla franchise or any other known series. To date this may be the least known movie I've reviewed, there are 3-4 mini posts out there with some info about the movie but no regular review. The main reason for wanting to view this is because it starred the above woman Setsuko Hara who could be the most popular or known Japanese actress of all time, least over there she is. Will talk a bit more about her at the bottom of this longish intro section and will do more of her movies in the future.... perhaps my next review!

 Briefly, in the last movie review was talking about how to me the quality of older B/W movies seems to be higher than color ones. Sure I'm wrong on that and maybe it's a case of me just preferring things in B/W which at times really gives it an eerie, mysterious or noir vibe to it. This movie was not shot on high quality film and you will notice that in the screenshots though for some odd reason do enjoy this kind of quality over pristine film movies! For about the first five years after the war budgets for movies were very low and often used was surplus army film which wasn't high quality but as mentioned no big deal to me. Above was from the opening credits and I wondered what did the 1879 mean as it wasn't the year this film took place.

 Main Cast: It may be difficult to see it because of he fog and the lowish quality of film but that building on the right side of the tiny island is where 90% of the action took place. That building was a weather observatory and don't know why it didn't double as a lighthouse. There weren't too many main characters, four who arrived on the island who will be listed first below. Then the other five were the men stationed at the observatory but only the first two had much screen time. Very briefly the main story was of a boat of smugglers ending up on an island where there was an observatory. The reason the gang stopped there was that they had only thirty minutes of fuel left and there were no other local islands. But on Kurashma they too had very little fuel but within 36 hours a supply boat would be coming, however also coming was a typhoon so the boat may not be arriving and the weathermen were stuck on the island with four smugglers!

Setsuko Hara as Kuriko Sato.... What a different role this was for Setsuko and had never seen her be a toughish character. Which is what Kuriko was as she was part of a small gang of smugglers, there were four others but one died early on it the film. Though she acted tough Kuriko was a caring person who had been a nurse in WWII, she seemed to be an excellent one so what a shame she didn't continue on with that career. Kuriko was orphaned at the age of eleven which may have been the main reason for how she turned out to be. She was the girlfriend of the below man Kijima and have no idea why as that man was such an A1 jerk.

Satoshi Yamamura as Kijima.... As mentioned the boyfriend of Kuriko and the leader of this small smuggling gang. Only because he is a tough talker as to me Kijima didn't appear to be much of a fighter or even that smart to be a leader, having a gun may have been the only reason he was the boss.... then again his henchmen weren't exactly Mensa types either!

 Eijiro Higashino as Yoshii.... What a creepy man he was and wouldn't trust him with your worst enemy! We ended up learning so little about him besides being a goon but at least a dedicated one, Yoshii also had a minor hump in his back.

Isamu Yamaguchi as Kataoka.... Though he piloted the gang's boat and wore a captain's hat he was far from one though did show more intelligence and respect towards others than his mates. That is until the forty minute mark when Kataoka attempted to make a move on Kuriko, when he was refused Kataoka tried having his way with her. Which ended badly as arriving on the scene were Kijima and Yoshii, after a short struggle Kataoka fell off a cliff into the sea and was washed away in the typhoon.

Jun Asami as Amano.... Radio operator for the Kuroshima Meteorological Observatory, back then operators used a device called a Radiogram which was very similar to a Morse Code machine. Amano had been shot by Kijima but it was just a flesh wound, he seemed to care a lot for Kuriko even though she was a smuggler, the feeling from her was mutual. Amano's radio was destroyed by Yoshii and Kataoka but had been repaired by the end of the day, unknown to Kijima Kuriko gave permission for it to be done..

 

Fuyuki Murakami as Takeda.... Leader of the observatory who would talk back to Kijima even though he constantly had a gun pointed at him! We got most of our info from Takeda such as the typhoon would be hitting the small island the next day, also that a supply ship was traveling to the island but may not come if the typhoon was too strong. Takeda also let the smugglers know that by destroying the radio it would make the Coast Guard come to the island though once again the impending storm may derail that.

 There were three other workers at the observatory who were Suzuki, Noguchi and Yamane. They did get a bit of screen time but always seemed to be in the background, all three were slightly important but couldn't tell you who was who! There was one other character whose name was Maki, he had been the fifth smuggler. In the opening scene when their boat was being chased by the Coast Guard Maki had been shot, a few hours later he died before the boat reached Kurashima.

 Am having only so-so luck finding any videos for a movie, once again there was no trailer though in a way did expect that. So for part two of the movie review will try to find some sort of tribute video for Setsuko or perhaps some movie I've seen her in and she has so many videos on YT. There really is no need to talk more about her as there is so much on the internet about Setsuko who could be the most known Japanese actress of all time, I've seen her in about a dozen films but that's only the tip of the iceberg. She was known for her being so attractive plus in her roles always played such a likable yet classy woman plus could do so many different kinds of characters, This film had Setsuko's oddest character as she had never played such a tough, criminal type of woman. Which she did to an extent in this one yet her character of Kuriko was also a caring one who had such a difficult upbringing but was an excellent nurse during WWII. 

 

 Can also use the word oddest again for what Setsuko did in 1962 was certainly odd as she retired from acting at the age of 42 and never worked again. It was her own decision as she never married and seemed to enjoy living a life of semi-seclusion, Setsuko was born in 1920, she passed away in 2015 at the age of 95 and do recommend reading up on her and she truly was one classy woman plus a fabulous actress. PS.... A name I hadn't thought about for a while or at least when writing posts up is Hideko Takemine who could be considered to be Setsuko's peer. They were born just four years apart and Hidehiko actually may be my #1 actress though haven't viewed any movies of her for a while. That's entirely my fault so you will see at least one film that she starred in soon, she passed away in 2010 at the age of 86. That's Setsuko below, despite retiring at the age of 42 she still appeared in at least a hundred films and want to hear the most interesting fact about her? In 1994 after being retired for 32 years she still had a high income, from royalties????, as Setsuko was ranked as having the 75th highest income in Japan!!!!

  

 That bottom pic above is from the 1947 movie "The Ball at the Anjo House" which may be my next film to review. If so will talk about it in part two of the review, did see it once but about eight years ago and forget almost everything about the film. Enough talk about Setsuko and once again do recommend reading up on her, especially at Japanese sites. Now let's get on to the movie and in another sentence or two will be taking a break. For up until this point have just viewed the first 43 minutes and there's still 25 to go, wanted to get a jump on things and did so as the above takes longer to write up than the actual review!!!! EDIT: Am back and probably could have finished the movie in one sitting but feel much more relieved with the above finished. May have been able to squeeze the whole review into one post but that also would have meant overly long paragraphs plus some details may have been left out. So two medium sized posts sounded like a wise idea to me and it should make the reading of the movie much easier. Let's finally get to the main review and it did open up with an action scene as one ship was chasing another during the middle of the night.

 The opening boat chase scene took place fifteen miles off the coast of Cape Shiro, that's a fictional name but there is one in Mexico. Almost all of the action takes place on the small isle of Kurashima, that too is not a real place. That chase scene is the first two screenshots above, the Japanese Coast Guard was chasing a boat which had been stolen but don't think the gang had done any smuggling which was the MO of the group. The late night weather became a bit nasty so the smugglers were able to elude the Coast Guard and why couldn't their radars locate the stolen boat which is in the third screenshot above. During that shootout with the Coast Guard one of the five smugglers had been shot whose name was Maki. The one woman in the gang was named Kuriko Sato, she was the only woman in this movie so of course will be in many screenshots. Kuriko had been a nurse during WWII and a top notch one too it appeared, she was able to ease Maki's immense pain but there was only so much she could do and said he needed to go to a hospital, that would be impossible in the middle of the sea. Because Cape Shiro and Kurashima weren't real places wasn't positive what area of Japan the film was set at but am thinking the east coast because of the typhoon that will soon be a major part of the story.

 Of course even if the smugglers were near land there's no way they could have brought Maki to a doctor as it would have meant a certain arrest. So for many hours this stolen boat just drifted in the sea, they didn't notice one island nor were there any other passing boats during this time. The boat was drifting for there was only enough fuel for the engine to run for thirty minutes. The man above saying that about the fuel and wearing the captain's hat was another smuggler named Kataoka, will get right to the other pair of thugs. Kataoka operated the boat though he was no official captain, at first he did seem to be a decent man considering he was a smuggler but ended up proving he was a creep also. The man you see wearing a patch plus with the slight hump in his back was Yoshii who is in the top screenshot below, he too was a creep though it was hard to dislike him. None of the five smugglers could be called intelligent save for Kuriko which is why the fifth man was the leader, mainly because he had a gun?

That so called leader's name was Kijima, he's in the second screenshot above and we rarely saw him in the first ten or so minutes but you will for the rest of the review.. Kijima as you can see had a gun and to me he seemed to shoot it too often, shouldn't he have been concerned about saving his ammo? Kijima was the boyfriend of Kuriko and that really did seem like an odd match for Kijima was nothing more than a low class thug. Kuriko wasn't a prize woman either though was attractive plus could have become a respected nurse so it's a shame she ended up with such a bum and I never thought she cared all that much for Kijima. Talking about his gun made me realize one thing which is at the end there was a second gun a gang member had. At the time couldn't figure out where it had come from but when writing up about that above shootout scene recalled that Yoshii also had a pistol. It's been well over thirty hours since being chased by the Coast Guard, there's been no sign of them or any other boat. Despite Kuriko's best efforts to keep Maki alive without proper medicine and being able to remove the bullet the man eventually died and was dumped at sea. The gang had not been preparing to be spending so much time at sea, there was no food not drink on the small boat so land better be found soon.

 And it was for the four remaining smugglers, you can see their boat and the small isle they came across above which was called Kurashima. On the right side of this small island was the Central Meteorological Observatory, their function was to observe the weather and such. Also to warn the mainland of any impending storms as you have to remember back in 1948 there wasn't any high-tach equipment for keeping track of the weather. On the small isle were five men and just two had biggish roles, the four from the boat were greeted warmly and were asked how did they end up on Kurashima? The 'leader' Kijima said their boat was lucky to survive as almost two days ago there was such a massive storm at sea and since then had been drifting aimlessly in the sea due to a lack of fuel. The boss of the observatory was Takeda, he's the man in glasses and when he heard what Kijima had said about a huge storm it aroused his suspicions. He told Kijima there hadn't been any major storms in the area, Takeda's men all backed him on that and soon the cat was let out of the bag. For 36 hours ago the Coast Guard had sent out a warning to all lighthouses and coastal weather stations about that stolen boat which had eluded them, it didn't take Takeda and his mates too long to figure out who this group of four was!

 Kijima immediately pulled out his pistol when their identities were known, it couldn't have held more than six bullets plus it didn't appear Kijima had any spare clips yet he must have fired 25 or more bullets in the movie! Before the secret had been revealed the gang of four had eaten and were doing much better but now what to do as they couldn't remain on the small island? The stolen boat had only enough fuel for the engine to run for thirty minutes, when Kataoka checked the supplies at the observatory they too had only fuel for an engine to run for thirty minutes. That's because fuel wasn't needed there but the following day a supply ship would be arriving at Kurashima, that is if the impending typhoon doesn't strike. If that were to happen the ship would be delayed by two days which was both good and bad for the four smugglers, good for they could remain for two more days. On the island was a radio and they had constant contact with the Coast Guard which worried Kijima. 

 Of the five observatory men the one who got the most screen time was the radio operator Amano, that's him arguing with Kijima in the second screenshot. Kijima wanted to destroy the radio as he was worried the Coast Guard would be notified, Amano was against that as they had to warn the mainland about the impending typhoon or else lives could be lost. Kijima was so irate at this 'goody two shoes man' that he shot him in the arm though it wasn't life threatening. Kuriko even helped out with dressing the wound and during this scene it appeared Amano took an instant liking towards Kuriko despite her being a criminal. All four smugglers did need to sleep, while Kijima did so Kuriko held his pistol and unknown to her lowlife boyfriend let the radio be repaired. The pistol had been stolen from Kuriko but she had planned on that and had removed the bullets, think she was testing out the other men besides Amano and Takeda. The men realized what kind of person Kuriko was which wasn't evil like her mates and had somehow had gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd. For her allowing them to repair the radio the leader Takeda promised not to call the Coast Guard about the smugglers being on Kurashima and would just notify the mainland about the status of the typhoon which should be at full strength in a dozen hours. So with that we're up to the 35 minute mark of this 68 minute movie and will say I am enjoying doing a review that's not too long. So far, so good for this film which was quite intriguing and part two for the review is the next post, below are more of what took place in the first half of the film. That first screenshot was of the Coast Guard radio man sending a warning about the smugglers, the machine used back then to wire ships and lighthouses was called a Radiogram.