Synopsis
After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.
1964 ‘香華’ Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita
After her mother runs away from home, Tomoko is raised to be a geisha. One day Tomoko meets her mother in a red-light district in Tokyo and her life deeply gets in trouble.
Kōge - Ichibu: Waremokō no shō, 향료의 향, Цветы и благовония, 향화, Le Parfum de l'encens
At 3hrs and 24mins, Scent of Incense is an epic drama that's intimate, restrained, and sorrow-filled. It chronicles the complicated relationship between a self-sacrificing daughter (Tomoko, played by Mariko Okada) and her profoundly selfish mother (Ikuyo, played by Nobuko Otowa).
The name "Tomoko" may as well mean "tragic" in Japanese, as suffering and misfortune are imbedded in the framework of her existence. Consider this film the diet version of Mizoguchi's The Life of Oharu. It thankfully doesn't OD on Tomoko's tragic life circumstances like the relentless, abject misery Oharu is subjected to—hence why I strongly prefer this to that film. Even so, suffering, obstacles, and disappointment are consistently part and parcel of Tomoko's reality.
As if abandoning Tomoko as a…
تقلای انسان معاصر برای نفی خشونت نهفته در تاریخی که خود از دل آن برآمده است و به یک معنا بازتولید آن است. این نفی در نهایت منجر به سترون شدنش از هر گونه کنش تاثیرگذاری میشود و او را به موجودی بینقش، نامرئی و کنشپذیر مبدل میسازد
Shows again why Kinoshita is so underrated: he might be the only one of the Japanese classic masters interested in form first and humanism if at all second, and therefore his films sometimes feel crass and heavy-handed, but he also gets to ask questions neither Mizoguchi nor Naruse (two obvious comparisons here) would even consider.
This one is a magnificent, dark epic at the tail end of his best period, the sprawling scope offset by the intimate framings: At its core, it's just a long series of mother-daughter conversations. More precisely, it's about a mother unilaterally rescinding the social contract, leading to the question of what's worse: corruption of family or corruption by family? What if both might mean one and the same thing?
Quite an extraordinary task by Kinoshita to even think that he could carry the entire movie without any sort of meaningful storyline & by using the two main leads. To an extent, he has succeeded in it too. Nobuko Otowa plays one of her best roles I have seen of her. Again, she is brilliant in every film. So not really a surprise. Mariko Okada yet again plays a lonely woman longing for love. But as time went by the plot became too much of repetition both by words & actions. We get to see the years go by without any much change in their character arc. At this time, we really don't feel anything for Okada. Kinoshita could've easily told the…
We’ve seen the story of a geisha hundreds of times before but rarely if ever has it been given the epic treatment that Kinoshita gives it in this undersung late-career triumph.
The only relationship I can’t seem to sever is with you.
A tale of mother and daughter stretched over multiple decades of death, wars, relationships, and heartbreaks. Pure melancholia painting a fascinating relationship between a generous saintly daughter and her selfish and outrageous mother. Both actresses are framed masterfully and their characters fascinate ~ Nobuko Otowa is effortlessly good.
As the story jumps through decades we only get glimpses of their lives but that’s enough to get a good image of who these women were and be saddened to leave their story behind after 3+ hours. May they live forever in our memories ~
A film about how we're all fatally bound to repeat our own mistakes and those of the ones that came before us, about how true love is a tie that can never be undone even if it's not reciprocate. The Scent Of Incense is the epic story of a Japanese woman victim of her time, forged to be tough but ever so kind; told in a very melodramatic manner, narratively, the film stuns by it's modern cinematography and directing, alternating between traditional and innovative styles of framing and camera work.
Must see!
An epic romance where the central relationship is between mother and daughter: complicated, heartbreaking, and tempestuous. A geisha story with very little geisha action... a woman's life story with almost no explorations of her varied, impressive achievements. History as family, as inheritance... an excoriating glimpse of Japanese history's sacred familial duty, each generation shoving problems and dependences onto the next. In the end, does the geisha find redemption, hope, fulfillment in an adopted son? Or does the film graciously end before yet another betrayal?
This has to be the The Human Condition of geisha films. "Complex plot" is quite an understatement here as it follows Tomoko's life right from her birth up until her old age. Interestingly, The Scent of Incense subverts the common plot of the nagging mother (step or in-law) by making Tomoko the one who always complains about everything her mother does. But ultimately she ends up living only half a life because of it.
The Scent of Incense is definitely a test of endurance but as a viewer you get rewarded with interwoven plotlines that feel very lifelike and natural. There is melodrama and there is also some lightheartedness in here. So, as always, if you enjoyed Mikio Naruse, this one might be for you as well.