Osaka Elegy is a 1936 film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi.
Ayako Murai is a a switchboard operator at Asai Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Asai, a gross old lecher stuck in an unhappy marriage, lusts after her. She prefers the attentions of Nishimura, a much more age-appropriate low-level employee at Asai, but there's a problem. Her father, a particularly useless old man, skimmed some money from his company's coffers and blew it all on risky investments. Now he owes his former employers three hundred yen and is facing prison if he doesn't pay it back.
So Ayako agrees to be Mr. Asai's mistress. Her time with Mr. Asai ends in humiliation, but she does at least get the money to pay her father's debt, even though he shows no gratitude. However, now her brother Hiroshi needs college tuition...and Ayako has to debase herself again.
Tropes:
- Dead Sparks: If the Asais ever loved each other they certainly don't any more. Not even the presence of the doctor in the room will stop them from hurling insults at each other. When Mr. Asai says that he should get a mistress his wife says he doesn't have the guts.Mrs. Asai: [edge of sarcasm] Shall we go back to calling each other darling?
Mr. Asai: Don't be absurd! With a face like yours? - Decoy Protagonist: The entire opening scene presents Mr. and Mrs. Asai and establishes their bitter, loveless marriage, then follows Mrs. Asai as she goes to her husband's work. It seems that one of the two of them will be the protagonist, and it's not until the film gets to the office that the true protagonist, Ayako, is established.
- Downer Ending: Ayako is forsaken by her would-be boyfriend Nishimura and shunned by her whole family, after she disgraced herself to support them. She's left all alone.
- Establishing Character Moment: The opening scene has Mr. Asai taking a towel from a maid, and the first line of dialogue is him barking "The towel's damp, you half-wit!" He's established as obnoxious.
- Hypocrite: Almost everyone in the film except poor Ayako is awful but her father is the worst. When he gets the mistaken impression that Ayako stole some money from Asai to pay his debt, he says "What an awful child!". This of course after he himself stole money from work.
- I Have No Son!: Hiroshi, Ayako's judgmental asshole of a brother, says "A delinquent of you is no sister of mine!". Her family cuts her off completely.
- Melodrama: A tragic Tearjerker about a young lady who sacrifices and debases herself to help her father and brother and, for her pains, winds up forsaken and alone.
- The Mistress: Ayako becomes one for Mr. Asai. It ends when a blunder by the family doctor leads to Mrs. Asai catching her husband in the apartment he's keeping for Ayako, and drags him home.
- My Girl Is Not a Slut: Ayako naively thinks that Nishimura, her admirer, will forgive her after she confesses to being The Mistress to two different men. Predictably, he dumps her instead.
- Puppet Shows: Mr. Asai takes Ayako to a bunraku puppet show, where only some quick thinking by his subordinate Fujino saves Asai from being caught by his wife.
- Stealing from the Till: Mr. Murai stole 300 yen from his company to place some risky stock bets that didn't pan out. Now Ayako has to start having sex with Mr. Asai to keep her dad out of jail.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: It's implied that Mrs. Asai is cheating on her husband; in the opening scene he's suspicious about how her "Women's Association" meetings keep her out until 2 am, and she invites young Nishimura to the opera. If she is, this is never followed up on.
