Kinuyo Tanaka has a child, which is a problem for her being a nurse. Her fellow nurses agree to cover up for her. It's also a problem for her budding romance with handsome young doctor Ken Uehara. He's the son of the hospital's manager who wants Uehara to marry a socially advantageous woman. None the less, Uehara and Miss Tanaka decide to run off for a while. She doesn't show up because she's tending to her sick child, which causes problems in both her professional and love lives. Eventually she decides to chuck it all and become a professional singer.
There are a lot of problems with the script, which sets the situation and advances the plot via large chunks of exposition. This is surprising because the novel it was based on was written by Matsutarô Kawaguchi, who directed films in the silent era, and the screenplay was by Kôgo Noda, who would spend the 1950s writing screenplay for Ozu. The large assortment of careers Miss Tanaka rivals RANDOM HARVEST for a character's course of life, and Uehara seems to change directions whenever it suits the plot.
That said, director Hiromasa Nomura handles the screenplay in as workmanlike a fashion as he can. It's just a pity he wasn't given something a lot more coherent.
There are a lot of problems with the script, which sets the situation and advances the plot via large chunks of exposition. This is surprising because the novel it was based on was written by Matsutarô Kawaguchi, who directed films in the silent era, and the screenplay was by Kôgo Noda, who would spend the 1950s writing screenplay for Ozu. The large assortment of careers Miss Tanaka rivals RANDOM HARVEST for a character's course of life, and Uehara seems to change directions whenever it suits the plot.
That said, director Hiromasa Nomura handles the screenplay in as workmanlike a fashion as he can. It's just a pity he wasn't given something a lot more coherent.