Hideo Gosha’s third adaptation of a Tomiko Miyao novel (the previous two being Kiruyin Hanako no shogai and The Geisha) is perhaps his most succesfull. While the earlier films were somewhat uneven, Kai remains very consistent in quality throughout. Ken Ogata plays the leading male role – a well doing but somewhat small time dealer in women trade – but once again it’s the female characters who form the film’s core. Yukiyo Toake is excellent as Ogata’s wife who slowly grows tired of his husbad who does what he wishes. The storyline certainly has a melodramatic undertone – and Gosha has sometimes gone wrong with his ”suffering women” scenarios – but Kai abstains from bigger emotional bursts.
The most important factor behind the success is the excellent acting from the entire leading cast. A slight exception might be Mikio Narita – an action film villain actor that Gosha insisted using in his films despite Narita not quite being in the same league with Gosha’s other regular cast. In Kai, whoever, his make-up assisted appearance as a grumpy old yakuza boss work as a slight relief in an otherwise drama heavy feature, which could maybe be called ”women’s cinema”.
『鬼龍院花子の生涯』『陽暉楼』に続き、五社英雄監督、宮尾登美子原作のコンビによる第３作。昭和39年以来、9年余の歳月をかけて完成させ、第9回太宰治賞を受賞した宮尾の自伝的小説を映画化。大正初期から昭和10年代の高知。女衒を生業とする夫・岩伍のもとに嫁ぎ、大小さまざまな嵐に翻弄されながらも喜和はひたすら耐えた。彼女の妻として、女としての愛と悲しみの20年を、五社監督独特の骨太のタッチで描く。
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