Man of the House

Ryûnosuke Tsukigata won’t go to Tokyo. Instead, he gets off the train to get drunk with his old master. His hangers-on are frantic. He’s scheduled to begin a show at the biggest theater he’s ever played. That must be why! It’s can’t be that old scandal which drove him from Tokyo eight years ago! Or can it?Mikio Naruse tells a story about a man who sacrifices everything for his art. He also sacrifices everyone around him: his first wife, his son. He justifies it all on the grounds that his performance is grounded in his imperfections. Can that be true? Or is it all specious hogwash? Naruse tells the sort of story he told frequently in his career, of a woman who suffers because of her man, and a society — here, Tsukigata’s entourage — set up to make sure he won’t take any consequences from his thoughtless, selfish behavior.