Rent Repast (1951)
3.8 of 5 from 55 ratings
1h 37min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
In many of his most successful films, Naruse depicted common people, living their lives. With 'Repast' the director set his characters to the task of navigating their way amidst a pungent atmosphere of fading love. Set shortly after World War II, 'Repast' is about a struggling marriage between salaryman Hatsunosuke (Ken Uehara) and his wife Michiyo (Setsuko Hara). It focuses on the emotional crisis of the bored housewife. The tedium of her domestic life - consumed by repetitive tasks such as cooking and cleaning - is brought into focus by a visit from Hatsunosuke's niece, Satoko (Yukiko Shimazaki). Satoko's arrival, and the amount of attention Hatsunosuke devotes to her charms, leads to further unhappiness for Michiyo, who is forced to confront her future. In the hands of master director Naruse, this adaptation of an unfinished novel by Fumiko Hayashi offers a fascinating exploration of married life, from the habitual routine of everyday existence to the hope for a better tomorrow that may or may not keep such relationships alive. - Actors:
- Ken Uehara, Setsuko Hara, Yukiko Shimazaki, Yôko Sugi, Akiko Kazami, Haruko Sugimura, Ranko Hanai, Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi, Keiju Kobayashi, Akira Ôizumi, Ichirô Shimizu, Haruo Tanaka, Sô Yamamura, Chieko Nakakita, Sayuri Tanima
- Directors:
- Mikio Naruse
- Producers:
- Sanezumi Fujimoto
- Writers:
- Toshirô Ide, Sumie Tanaka, Yasunari Kawabata, Fumiko Hayashi
- Aka:
- Meshi / A Married Life
- Studio:
- Eureka
- Genres:
- Children & Family, Classics, Drama
- Collections:
- Masters of Cinema, Top Films
- Countries:
- Japan
More like Repast
Not released
Reviews (1) of Repast
Who Gets Fed, Who Gets Used Up - Repast review by griggs
Setsuko Hara on my Japanuary watchlist is a guarantee I’m going to pay attention. Repast delivers: Naruse makes ordinary life feel quietly brutal, like you’re watching someone get worn down one small compromise at a time — and then realising it’s been happening for years.
After When a Woman Ascends the Stairs and Yearning, it’s the same fury, just moved indoors. In Osaka, Hara’s Michiyo keeps the house running — shopping, cooking, tidying, smoothing moods — while her husband Hatsunosuke (Ken Uehara) drifts through life with that effortless entitlement that’s hard to argue with because it’s never announced. He’s not a villain; he’s worse, in a way: he’s just comfortable. The “money headaches” aren’t dramatic either. They’re small, thoughtless choices that Michiyo ends up paying for, emotionally and practically.
The arrival of Satoko, Hatsunosuke’s niece is the pressure point. She doesn’t just add chaos — she changes the temperature. Youth, possibility, a different rhythm of life… and suddenly Michiyo can see her own routine from the outside. The title starts to sting too. Meals aren’t just meals here; they’re repetition made visible. Who eats, who serves, who gets thanked, who gets taken for granted. Naruse turns cooking and clearing away into a quiet accounting system.
His restraint is the weapon: tight rooms, doorways that feel like boundaries, chores that repeat until they become a kind of sentence. What finally pushes Michiyo isn’t one big betrayal, but the slow accumulation of loneliness and being treated like the household’s invisible infrastructure.
Then the ending arrives and gestures at a kind of mental or spiritual reset — beautifully filmed, almost serene — but it’s a slightly odd fit with everything we’ve lived through. Screenwriter Sumie Tanaka wanted divorce; the studio wanted “happy”. You can feel the compromise, like peace that’s been carefully arranged rather than earned. I finished it quietly rattled, in the way only a “small” film can manage.
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