Ayako Wakao makes calculating women worth listening to, with a frankness that discourages easy affection. We value the force and sensuality of her work with Yasuzō Masumura; the early ingénue parts could ask too little of her.
Fi1m perspective
Ayako Wakao’s voice can be blunt: low, plain and frank, with little encouragement to find the speaker sweet. In her later collaborations with Yasuzō Masumura, it becomes breathier and more guttural, suited to the sensual, psychologically complicated women she plays. The delivery matters because so many of these women want something they are not supposed to want. We value her willingness to make them calculating without asking us to dismiss them.
In Yasujirō Ozu’s Floating Weeds (1959), she plays Kayo, a young actress in a touring troupe. The still, colourful compositions give the people in it time to become understandable, including those we might prefer to judge quickly. We were moved by that patience, by being allowed to keep looking at troubled people without being hurried past them. Not every stretch earns its length, and the pace occasionally becomes a test. It is worth seeing her here before treating the more forceful Masumura characters as the only kind of woman she could play.
Her early work was not uniformly rewarding: ingénue parts could ask too little beyond youthful appeal. The important change comes with Kenji Mizoguchi, first in A Geisha (1953), where she plays the trainee Eiko, then in Street of Shame (1956), as the calculating prostitute Yasumi. The second part allows an unsympathetic woman to remain worth our attention. It is a stronger use of Wakao than simply asking her to be agreeable.
Masumura became the sustained partnership: they made 20 films together. A Wife Confesses (1961) gives her a psychologically intense, calculating lead; Red Angel (1966) places her as a frontline nurse in a brutal war drama. These are substantial demands on an actor, and they make good use of the frankness and sensuality that slighter parts could leave unused. Masumura gives her room for vitality and selfishness without insisting that either should make the character pleasant. Start with Floating Weeds for the patient drama, then try A Wife Confesses when the mood calls for something more intense.
Biography
Ayako Wakao is a Japanese actress born on 8 November 1933 in Tokyo. She began her career under contract to Daiei Studios in 1951 as part of the fifth "New Face" group and made her film debut the following year.
She has appeared in over 100 feature films. Wakao starred in 20 films by director Yasuzō Masumura and appeared in seven works by Kon Ichikawa. She featured in Kenji Mizoguchi's A Geisha (1953) and Street of Shame (1956), and played Kayo in Yasujirō Ozu's Floating Weeds (1959). Other notable roles include parts in An Actor's Revenge (1963), Manji (1964), Red Angel (1966) and Irezumi (1966).
