That Night's Wife (1930)

IMDb plot summary: A desperate man with a sick daughter decides to commit a robbery in order to help her. He begins to feel remorse though, which makes him question his decision.

Directed by Yasujirô Ozu. Stars Mitsuko Ichimura, Tokihiko Okada, and Chishû Ryû.

That Night's Wife is an early silent film by Yasujiro Ozu that follows a young family with a sick daughter. The father commits a robbery to get the money to pay for her care, but the police track him back to their home. The mother then holds the police hostage until their daughter makes it through the worst of her illness that night. I'VE only seen two other films by Ozu and while Tokyo Story was just kind of okay for me, I really loved Late Spring, and this one makes me even more interested in checking out more of his work. Silent films can be a tough sell for me, and foreign films can also be a tough sell, so silent foreign can often be extra daunting, but two of my favorite films from this 1930 project have both been silent foreign films, and this is one of them. There is a warmth to this story that is present in all aspects of it, which is something we very rarely see in crime-centered stories. I found the final scene very moving. I don't know whether the score that I heard along with the film was intended to be its original score, but it certainly fit beautifully and enhanced the noble sacrifice of the main character. This decade also tends to have a lot of overacting among its characters, but the style here is intimate and realistic in a way that is unique for this era, and I think that's what made it so accessible to me as a modern viewer. This  one is well worth watching.

How it entered my Flickchart:

🎥 That Night's Wife (1930)

📊 Ranked #478/4022 on my Flickchart

🎯 Flickscore™: 88

beat Dark and Stormy Night (#2008 → #2012)

beat La La Land (held at #1001)

beat Punchline (#500 → #585)

lost to Gaslight (#250 → #230)

lost to Blood Simple (#375 → #366)

lost to Hearts Beat Loud (#437 → #434)

beat Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (#468 → #499)

lost to Shall We Dance? (#452 → #440)

lost to Black Narcissus (#460 → #458)

lost to Next Goal Wins (#464 → #463)

lost to The Grey (#466 → #441)

lost to Carrie (#467 → #464)