Movie Digest
This movie, Angry Rice Wives, is based on an actual incident. It is during August 1918 when the story is set. Ito is a wife of a fisherman living in the coastal village of Toyama. She is the mother of three children. In the summertime, fish are scarce, so Ito’s husband goes far away to catch fish with other village fishers. Along with other fishers’ wives, Ito worked in ships, carrying goods, mainly rice. She could hardly manage to earn money to feed rice to her children. The story is about the Rice Riots that broke out in the village, with Ito being the prominent protestor amongst all.
The Feel-Good Part
Whenever a story is set on actual life incidents, the audience is intrigued to learn what history holds and see the struggles of the earlier people. In movies like this, it is made sure that whatever they show is accurate and not made up in order to gain publicity. This movie has done its best to shine light upon the people who fought for their rights in the earlier periods, especially women. The rice prices in the village kept increasing as days went by, and the women could not feed their children. They protested against the unfair increase in prices and raised their voices despite the difficulties from the officials.
The Disappointing Factor
There is no disappointing part as such in the movie. The story highlights women’s struggles and strength, completely ignoring the men in the village or the movie as a whole. The movie showed a plot where they say that women are not naturally strong. They become strong as per the circumstances. Maybe there would be conflicting thoughts about this assertion. Women can be naturally strong and change in the situation. Stating just one stand shows light only upon one part of the truth.
In-Depth Analysis
The movie is about how the women came together to fight for rice prices to go down. They were led by the villager elder named Obaba. They took the first step to stop the rice from being sent to other places, but they failed. There is also a journalist called Masaki Nakao, who gets interested in this protest and interviews people to showcase the village women’s struggle and fight to the world. The main highlight of the movie is the climax. The uproar that the protest brought about left a lasting impression on people. It gave out the message of how important food is and not waste it.
Star Power
The character of Ito Matsuura, performed by Mao Inoue, is a kind-hearted woman and brave and strong at the same time. The performance that the actress gave was excellent. Her character had layers of emotions that were portrayed very well. When the rice process started to go up, Ito was weak. However, as she became a fierce protestor character and showed her actual self as a fighter, it showed the actress’s ability to transition smoothly without any flaw. It is so smooth that people would accept the change very readily.
Overall Opinion
The movie Angry Rice Wives is a must-watch. It has shown us how society was in older times, and though women were suppressed, they had the strength to bring about a change in society. It is a movie with a moral, a changed mindset, and a perfect dose of drama.
