The Thunder of the Mountain

THE THUNDER OF THE MOUNTAIN
YAMA NO OTO
Japan
1954
96 Min
Black and White
1.37:1
Japanese
DIR Mikio Naruse
PROD Sanezumi Fujimoto
SCR Yoko Mizuki
DP Masao Tamai
CAST Setsuko Hara, So Yamamura, Ken Uehara, Yôko Sugi
MUSIC Ichirô Saitô
My Rating : 2/5



This is my third Naruse after Floating Clouds and When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, both of which I found extremely impressive. Expectations were hence pretty high from this film which unfortunately turned out to be a disappointment. I have been watching a lot of Ozu recently and I couldn’t help comparing this film with Ozu’s but at the same time when I tried to judge this movie independently it left me wanting several things.
Firstly, the character of Setsuko Hara was something that I couldn’t understand. She appeared to be a good wife and daughter in law who is dedicated to her family but disappointed by her husband. She has childish enthusiasm in her which doesn’t go down well with her husband who probably doesn’t find her sexually attractive resulting in his search for greener pastures. Hara remains stoic for a long time and we are developing respect for her strength of character and hope that better sense will prevail and the husband will eventually come back for her. Instead we are in for a rude shock when we discover that Hara is pregnant and gets herself an abortion because her husband doesn’t want the child. Eventually she simply decides to leave her husband who on the other hand is only refered to as being repentant although the last time we have see him there is nothing that suggests any repentence. So does Hara gain a high moral ground or do we sympathise with her character? Hardly so, in my opinion.
The father in law is another character who remains a mystery. He seems to love his daughter in law even more than his own daughter but refuses to confront his son on his manners. In fact, we wonder if he has something more than a fatherly relationship with Hara but again this remains a mystery. He decides to let Hara get away from his son in the end as if he has taken a path breaking decision and in the final scene we are simply left confused regarding what exactly the old man is driving at.
The old man’s wife and daughter are characters that are hardly developed. The daughter is jealous of Hara but at the same time doesn’t show any real animosity towards her and seems to get along well. The old man’s wife is a character that is almost a prop and hardly serves any purpose. Then comes Hara’s unfaithful husband himself. He is again a character who remains remorseless in the end and probably is happy that Hara has left him. It makes us wonder what the fuss is all about. His flame is shown in one sequence which I personally found pretty pointless and so is her friend and a receptionist. I also wondered what business the father and son were exactly conducting in that office of theirs.
Eventually all that happened was that the movie left me confused. Neither did I know what to appreciate about it nor could i feel any sympathy towards the characters. Overall the movie was a disappointment.