is a 1950 Japanese

comedy film The comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Mikio Naruse was a Japanese filmmaker who directed 89 films spanning the period 1930 to 1967. Naruse is known for imbuing his films with a bleak and pessimistic outlook. He made primarily Shoshimin-eiga, shōshimin-eiga ("common people drama") films with f ...

. It consists of three self-contained episodes, based on stories by Yōjirō Ishizaka.

Plot

;Episode 1 "A Story of Buried Gasoline" Professor Ishinaka is a novelist living in a village in

Aomori , officially Aomori City (, ), is the capital Cities of Japan, city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 264,945 in 136,781 households, and a population density of 321 people per squa ...

and respected by the villagers for his advice. He is paid a visit by Yuzō, a young man who believes that he and his army comrades buried 460 drums of gasoline in the orchard of local farmer Yamazaki shortly before the end of the war. Ishinaka, Yuzō, Yamazaki and townsman Nakamura start digging, but soon give up and drink sake instead, entertained by Yamazaki's daughter Moyoko with a traditional folk dance. Yuzō later confesses to Moyoko that he only pretended that the drums were buried in her father's orchard because he fell in love with her during his first visit and wanted to meet her again. Ishinaka, Yuzō and Nakamura leave the digging to Yamazaki, who thinks that Yuzō and his daughter would make a good pair and asks the professor to act as a matchmaker for their wedding. ;Episode 2 "A Story of an Argument" Yamada, owner of the local bookstore, tells customer Kihara that he has two tickets for a travelling burlesque show which is visiting the village. Both men agree that, with the public morals at stake, they should attend the show for "examination". Yamada's daughter Mariko is indignant when she hears of her father visiting the show, and tells her boyfriend Shuichi, son of Kihara, to wait with her outside of the venue afterwards and confront their fathers for their behaviour. When Yamada and Kihara appear, they blame each other for the idea to attend the show. Mariko and Shuichi quickly side with their fathers, leading to an argument which results in Mariko refusing to speak to Shuichi. Professor Ishinaka manages to bring the fathers and the young couple together again. ;Episode 3 "A Story of a Carriage of Hay" Yoshiko, a young woman from Iwaki, visits her sister at the hospital in the next town. One of the fellow patients reads her palm and predicts that she will soon meet her future husband. On her way back, Takichi, a farmer from Yoshiko's village, offers her a ride on his hay carriage. During a rest at a teahouse, Yoshiko mistakes Takichi's carriage with that of Teisaku from Harago village and falls asleep. When she wakes up at Teisaku's home, his family invites Yoshiko to stay for the night due to the late time of day, and she agrees to visit a local festivity with him. The next day, before Yoshiko's departure, Teisaku's mother has a constable and Professor Ishinaka write a certificate that the young woman slept in the mother's room and that her virginity is still intact. After dropping Yoshiko off near her home, Teisaku asks Ishinaka, who was riding along on his bike, if he believes in love at first sight. Ishinaka agrees, advising Teisaku to accompany Yoshiko right up to her house.

Cast

* Juzo Miyata as Professor Ishinaka * Atsushi Watanabe as Kin'ichirō Nakamura ;Episode 1 * Yuji Hori as Yuzō Kawai *

Eitarō Shindō was a Japanese film actor. He appeared in more than 300 films between 1936 and 1975. He is most closely associated with the work of Kenji Mizoguchi, with whom he made twelve films. Selected filmography * '' Sisters of the Gion'' (1936) * '' ...

as Yamazaki * Mayuri Mokushō as Moyoko, Yamazaki's daughter ;Episode 2 * Kamatari Fujiwara as Takezo Yamada * Yaeko Izumo as Tomoko, Yamada's wife *

Yōko Sugi was a Japanese actress mainly active in the 1950s, who appeared in films of Mikio Naruse, Kinuyo Tanaka and Tadashi Imai. Biography Sugi was born on 28 October 1928 in what is now Bunkyō ward, Tokyo, Japan. In 1945 she graduated from a Japan ...

as Mariko, Yamada's daughter * Zekō Nakamura as Kamekichi Kihara *

Ryō Ikebe was a Japanese actor. He graduated from Rikkyō University and originally wanted to be a director, but ended up debuting as an actor at Tōhō in 1941. He did not achieve popularity until starring in a series of youth films in the late 1940s. H ...

as Shuichi, Kihara's son * Fujio Nagahama as bathhouse owner * Haruko Tozan as dancer ;Episode 3 *

Toshiro Mifune was a Japanese actor and producer. The recipient of numerous awards and accolades over a lengthy career, he is widely considered one of the greatest actors of all time. He often played hypermasculine characters and was noted for his commandin ...

as Teisaku Nagasawa * Yōyō Kojima as Teisaku's father * Chōko Iida as Teisaku's mother * Shiro Mizutani as Teisaku's younger brother * Setsuko Wakayama as Yoshiko Kimura * Chieko Nakakita as Katsuko, Yoshiko's sister * Hiroshi Yanagiya as Seijirō, Katsuko's husband *

Haruo Tanaka was a Japanese film actor noted for his supporting roles in a career that spanned seven decades. Career Tanaka was born in Kyoto and quit school in order to become a film actor, joining the Nikkatsu studio in 1925. He eventually moved up to se ...

as Aikawa * Yōnosuke Toba as constable * Tsuruko Mano * Fumito Matsuo

Background

''Ishinaka sensei gyōjōki'' was a series of stories by Ishizaka first published in the monthly magazine ''

Shōsetsu Shinchō is a publisher founded in 1896 in Japan and headquartered in , Shinjuku, Tokyo. Shinchosha is one of the sponsors of the Japan Fantasy Novel Award. Books * Haruki Murakami: ''Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World'' (1985), ''Uten En ...

'' and later collected in book form by the Shinchōsha publishing house between 1948 and 1954. It was also adapted for television in 1960 and again for film in 1966. The film Yoshiko watches in the cinema is '' Aoi sanmyaku'' (1949), also based on a work by Ishizaka.

Reception

Naruse biographer Catherine Russell describes ''Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka'' as "a trilogy of short romantic comedies" and "narratives of hope and optimism, as new couples are formed to carry on the work of the New Japan". Although Russell sees the performances in this film and Naruse's other works of 1950 (''Angry Street'', ''White Beast'' and '' Battle of Roses'') as "under-rehearsed", she singles out ''Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka'' and ''White Beast'' as "well-made films" featuring "strong-minded female characters".

Home media

''Conduct Report on Professor Ishinaka'' was released on DVD in Japan in 2023.

References

External links

* {{Mikio Naruse 1950 comedy films Japanese comedy films Japanese black-and-white films Films based on short fiction Films directed by Mikio Naruse Shintoho films 1950s Japanese films Films based on works by Japanese writers Films set in Aomori Prefecture