Appassionata (序の舞)

This story is based on the novel "Jo No Mai" by Tomiko Miyao

and any names of characters, establishments and organizations are fictional.

TOEI COMPANY, LTD. Presents

APPASSIONATA

Production Managers Goro Kusakabe Kyo Namura

Original Story by Tomiko Miyao

Screenplay by Hiroo Satsuma

Director of Photography Fujiro Morita

Music by Toshiro Mayuzumi

Cast

Yuko Natori

Morio Kazama

Kunihiko Mitamura Aki Mizusawa

Ayako Kobayashi

Kin Sugai

Narration by Etsuko Ichihara

Mikio Narita Kei Sato

Mieko Takamine Yoshiko Mita

Mariko Okada

Directed by Sadao Nakajima

Say goodbye to Ma and Grandma once again.

Take good care of yourself, Sei.

Be a good girl so your new parents will like you.

Shall we go?

Sei was adopted by the Shimamura's when she was 9.

They're still waving their hands.

Wave your hands, Sei.

In 1858...

Shimamura was running "Chikiri-ya", a tea shop

at the present day Miyuki-machi, Kyoto.

Father and Mother, thank you for adopting me.

Shimamura had been sewing in "Chikiri-ya,"

and draper's shop for many years until

he established his own tea shop

under the same shop name with his master's permission.

We've adopted this child named Sei as our daughter.

Please continue your favors toward us.

Festivities continue to be held at various shrines

during the month of May.

Every year at the time of the Shimogoryo Festival

tea brokers frequent the tea shop to sell the

first tea of the season.

Try the flavor of tea, good or bad.

How is it?

This smells sweet at a bite...

...and is refreshing.

The other one?

It's as tasteless as edible seaweed.

And it stinks like a bonfire.

You're a smart girl.

The broker says it's first-class Uji-tea.

You can't be too careful these days

or you're be palmed off bad mixtures.

In Kyoto, it's literally cold in winter and

sultry in summer.

They keep on the summer heat in July and August

with Gion and the Bon festivals.

An exchange of mid-year presents is active, so

tea shops are busy with business during these

months, just as they are at the year's end.

I'm from Chikiri-ya.

You're late.

I'm sorry, ma'am.

The Tokugawa Regime fell when Sei was 18

and the Meiji era set in.

Sei's foster parents died in succession in that year.

And then...

In 1870...

...through a person's good offices Sei took a husband

who was a young carver.

Her husband left his two children to mourn his death

in 1875 and Sei became a widow at just 26.

I've been thinking...

It isn't that easy for you to support two children this way.

As we know...

Shima is a gentle girl.

Why not have her adopted by some family?

Send Shima away?

You can avoid cutting one another's throats.

She'll be happier and your life will be easier.

You know what being a foster child is like.

I'm sorry, I must disobey you, Mother.

I think we can manage if I work hard enough.

We'll be independent of any of our relatives.

Why?

You'll be better off if you send her away now.

You have to give her away in marriage some day.

It's only a matter of time, isn't it?

Is that why you gave me away?

You don't understand at all.

How lonely I was after I was adopted to the Shimamuras.

Even though they were kind to me

I was sick for my real parents and cried often.

There was no help for it.

No matter what, children are happiest

living with their real parents.

Did you...?

I bore a grudge against you while I was growing up.

If that's the way you think, it can't be helped.

I thought it would do you good.

Have it your way.

How old do you think you are?

You've just become 26 years old.

You're blooming, aren't you?

You shouldn't make sacrifices for children so much.

Think of your own happiness as a woman.

Shima, what are you...?!

Ouch!

Shima! Shima!

It hurts! It hurts!

You fool.

What a thing to do!

Did I ever discriminate between you two?

It's looks just like Mother.

Mr. Nishiuchi!

Your Mother?

This is our drawing teacher, Mother.

Mr. Nishiuchi? How do you do!

It's owing to your guidance that she could get such a prize.

Congratulations.

I thought she would win a prize with her talent.

Nevertheless I was not free from worries since

this is an all-primary school exhibition in Kyoto.

This is wonderful. I'm glad.

Mother.

Mr. Nishiuchi says that I should ask you

to let me go to the school of art.

School of Art?

Do you want to become a painter?

Absolutely not. I won't let you.

Don't be so harsh on her.

Tsuya is gifted.

I'll do housework in her place any time.

How unreasonable you both are.

To be independent as an artist is difficult even for a man.

I think it's easier for a woman to

find a good husband and marry him.

Tsuya.

How to use the brush comes first.

Practice drawing any line accurately with a brush.

Some painters use a ruler to draw in a thing.

Their pictures may be well shaped but have no soul.

They're dead pictures so to speak.

The 1st prize at the Industrial Exposition is bought up by

Prince Connacht (1840)

Tsuya's picture got a prize.

The first prize, you know.

Congratulations!

Have some tea, please.

Congratulations!

Please draw something on my fan.

Open it. It's yours.

Mother! It's 60 yen!

It's 6 yen, isn't it? It's terrific!

It must be the mistake of an official who placed it in.

Report it to them.

No, it's no mistake.

To Shosui Shimamura: The first prize of sixty yen.

So it says on the list.

It's an awful thing.

You'll be punished for it.

It's a large sum. We can live on it for one year.

Save it all.

That's better.

I see what you both mean.

It must not be squandered. But it's some money.

How about this way?

Buy something for Master Shokei first.

I'll buy some water colors that I've been craving for.

Mother and Shima will buy kimonos...

...the very best ones.

Save the balance if any.

I don't mind if nothing remains.

It's remembrance of my first prize money.

Oh, my goodness!

I couldn't buy the things I wanted since childhood.

Let Tsuya be a good daughter.

Why not take a chance this time, Shima?

Thank you very much, ma'am.

Come again, please.

Mr. Nishiuchi.

Shimamura? Come in.

Are you quitting school and going abroad?

Yes, I am.

I want brush up my painting in Europe.

How many years?

Four or five years.

So long a time?

Take me with you.

That's impossible.

Don't cry.

Stop crying.

I'll get you some souvenirs from Europe.

Tsuya obtains honorable mention at the Fourth Art Exhibition (1891)

Master, I want to draw thinner lines.

The lines you draw are good enough.

But...

A real girls' hair is much thinner like this.

Hair is a woman's life.

A woman's chignon should be drawn like real.