Fûzen no tomoshibi (1957) HD online

Three street toughs -- well, two and Shinji Tanaka, who's hanging around the railroad station, trying to get to his hometown, whom they threaten into helping them -- are going to rob a suburban house. It will be an easy job. Once the husband goes to work, it will be a housewife (Hideko Takamine) and her old mother-in-law (Akiko Tamura). If they make any trouble, well, hoods have knives.

Except that while they watch the house, the kid stays home, Hideko's sisters visit, and a brother-in-law and tatami repairmen and the whole place is as busy as.... well, what's Japanese for Grand Central Station? And everyone bickers, and schemes and shouts. There the hoods are, waiting for the opportunity that seems like it will never come in Keisuke Kinoshita's black comedy about life among the working poor.

Its rhythms remain odd to me, but the concerns of everyone -- ill-tempered, penny-pinching grandma, oppressed Hideko, her self-centered, marginal sisters (including Toshiko Kobayashi, with whom Miss Takamine worked so well in the two "Carmen" films), even the three hoods, all have real issues, which they all try to deal with in unattractive ways. The constant boil of incidents and wondering what ugly, funny thing these characters would do next kept me interested all the way through.

DANGER STALKS NEAR / HANGING BY A THREAD / CANDLE IN THE WIND / A PRECARIOUS SITUATION (Lit.) (FUUZEN NO TOMOSHIBI). Viewed on Streaming. Restoration/preservation = ten (10) stars; cinematography = five (5) stars; subtitles = two (2) stars; "music" = 1.5 stars. Director Keisuke Kinoshita constructs his monetary-themed family farce -- comedy with a dash of drama -- in classic upside-down-pyramid style starting slowly with next to nothing and loading on more and more at an increasingly frantic pace as the film progresses. Kinoshita essentially begins with a series of exterior long shots showing the comings and goings involving a rather ramshackle (it's seen better days) house outside of town as observed by a trio of dumber-than-dumb would be burglars. Eventually the Director moves things up and into the house revealing a not-quite-poor family run like a marketplace. Everyone seems to carry cash or has some guarded nearby, and just about every activity is on a cash (or barter) and carry basis! If you want to scramble eggs you first have to pay for them; if you'd like tea, you first have to do some laundry; etc. When the local paper announces that a family member has won a valuable prize, the place is inundated with poor (or faking-poor) relatives, friends, acquaintances, and even strangers (including an armed minor criminal who only has one bullet!) all seeking -- what else? -- cash (or the equivalent thereof). Talented lead actress Hideko Takamine (who appears a bit chunky) plays a wife in perpetual motion (when not making change) and is surrounded by a cast of fine character actresses and actors. Facial expressions and body language are often far funnier than line readings. Cinematography (narrow screen, black & white) has some rough edges including long shots and extreme close-ups that are not quite in focus. Music is virtually nonexistent which is just as well, since it is not great. Subtitles suffer from a lack of disciplined translation editing and more often than not flash by at a rate making them impossible to read. Adult grammatical supervision is sadly missing! Restoration/preservation is outstanding. One of Keisuke Kinoshita's minor entries. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Like the title of my review states, this movie is an unusual mixture of suspense and humor. It works but it took me a while to get in tune with it. The title of he movie and the opening scenes make it seem like it's going to be a straight forward suspense movie. Three thugs meet in the city and wander out to the suburbs to scope out an isolated house which they have heard has a lot of money stashed in it. They are waiting for the house to mostly empty out so they can sneak in and hopefully keep the killing down to a minimum. Unbeknownst to them, however, they have picked the wrong day for the job as the house ends up being besieged by bill collectors, repair men, potential boarders and money grubbing relatives. Then there is the mysterious man claiming to be an old friend of the family...The movie ends up being a domestic comedy, filled with venal characters who can't stand each other but who have to pretend to get along for various reasons. Kudos to the beautiful Hideko Takamine who transforms herself into a frumpy hausfrau chafing under her domineering mother-in-law. This movie isn't a world classic, but is definitely worth seeing.

I watched this movie curious to see what it was.

It starts with 3 criminals that plan to make a robbery in a house to get the old mothers fortune. And then we wait for a long time for them to move because people go in and out of the house at the same time.

Main part of what the movie is about is the poor couple there have won a prize in a contest and all their family come to get a share of the prize money.

In my opinion there are a few funny things in the movie but not enough to justify spending the time it takes. If you are into family conflicts in a bit funny way then it may be a movie for you.