Metrograph

The fifth entry in Naruse’s informal cycle of marriage films (Repast, Husband and Wife, Wife, Sound of the Mountain) finds Setsuko Hara once again cast in the unenviable role of a put-upon housewife, whose bored salaryman husband (Shuji Sano) only pipes up to ask what’s for dinner or to complain about her cutting recipes from his newspaper. Here, Naruse widens his typically domestic perspective to include the social tapestry of the suburban Tokyo neighborhood around the couple’s home, filling out the film’s picture of the pressures of middle class life with enviable neighbors, a meddling community board, and even an unseen local pickpocket. A darkly delightful comedy in which Naruse pushes his sharp observation of the petty irritants and banal routines of marital life to nearly farcical extremes, Sudden Rain comprises one of the director’s most purely enjoyable films.