Sound of the Mountain (山の音) is a 1954 Japanese drama film directed by Mikio Naruse. It is based on the novel The Sound of the Mountain by Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata. Naruse declared Sound of the Mountain one of his favourites of his films.

Plot

Shingo, an aging businessman, sees the marriage of his son Shuichi and his daughter-in-law Kikuko, who live in the same household, fall apart due to Shuichi's coldness and adulterous behaviour. Flattered by Kikuko's overt adoration for him, he tries to act as a cornerstone for her. His own daughter Fusako, who left her husband and moved back into her parents' home with her children, blames Shingo for her arranged and failed marriage and for his preference of Kikuko over her. Shingo accompanies Kikuko to a hospital visit, only to learn later that she aborted the child she expected from Shuichi. A secretary from Shingo's company helps him to find Kinu, Shuichi's mistress and an independent businesswoman, who tells him of his son's abusive behaviour. Kikuko finally decides to divorce her husband and, meeting Shingo in a park, tells her father-in-law that she wants to try to live a life on her own.

Cast

Themes

Naruse biographer Catherine Russell sees Sound of the Mountain as a woman's film, as it reduces the book's perspective of Shingo in favour of the female characters who, with the exception of the passive Kikuko, act outspoken and independently, "trying to make their way in a world in which men like Shuichi have been psychologically destroyed by the war". The last scene suggests the possibility of change for Kikuko, achieving a positive resolution of her problems.

Legacy

When a Woman Ascends the Stairs was screened at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive in 1981, at the Museum of Modern Art in 1985 and at the Harvard Film Archive in 2005 as part of their retrospectives on Mikio Naruse.

Awards