Repast (film)

Repast (めし, Meshi) is a 1951 film by Mikio Naruse, starring Setsuko Hara. It is set in postwar Osaka and it is about a woman who has moved from Tokyo (her father is a well-known professor) to settle down with her husband. Her salaryman husband ignores her, and she is slowly worn down by domestic drudgery. Matters come to a head when her pretty niece comes to stay and the husband begins to flirt with her. "Naruse shows brilliantly how the husband and wife cling to respectability by a thread." Dissatisfied with his efforts to improve their household life, she returns to Tokyo for a time.

Contents

• Cast
• Awards and nominations
• References

Repast is the first of Naruse's adaptations from the novels by Fumiko Hayashi, a writer who specialised in stories of the downtrodden. "I am moved by the sadness to be found in the simple lives of people...", a quotation included at the beginning of the film, expresses the writer's preoccupations.