Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts

Three Sisters with Maiden Hearts (乙女ごころ三人姉妹) is a 1935 drama directed by Mikio Naruse and produced by Toho Company Ltd., and this company’s first-ever film and Naruse’s first sound film. Most of his earlier silent films remain lost.

A major theme is financial struggle. The three sisters live with their strict, abusive mother and a trio of other young girls, all of whom rely on meager earnings from shamisen playing and dance performances for men in a theater and in shady bars in Asakusa, the center of Tokyo’s shitamachi, or “low city.” Naruse himself grew up in poverty, and it’s a theme that surfaces in several of his films.

Another theme is the tension between accepting and resisting one’s circumstances and social standing. The youngest (Ryuko Umezono; left in the photo below) is allowed by her mother to wear modern clothing, and the family’s hopes are pinned on her marrying well and getting out. The eldest (Chikako Hosokawa; center) does leave, but only to find that life is far harsher than she had imagined. She struggles with a depressive husband dying of tuberculosis. The middle sister (Masako Tsutsumi; right), the most intriguing of the three, endures the humiliation of her work and her loneliness, and is, for the most part (when she’s not smashing her shamisen), selfless and devoted to her sisters’ happiness to the bitter end.

The film feels unnecessarily experimental at times, though this also makes it more interesting. The boat scene, for example, features unusual camera angles, shifting from head-level shots to perspectives that feel almost as if seen from the water itself. In this scene, a young couple chat lightly about how others might interpret a capsized boat as a double suicide. It doesn’t do much for the plot, but it’s a delightful digression.

Another highlight is the footage of 1930s Asakusa, from rooftops to back alleys. And credit is due to whoever handled the subtitles, which include translations of the business names on shop signs.