Synopsis
To pay for his daughter Michiko's medical treatment, artist Hashizume Shuji breaks into an office. When the police arrive on the scene, he hops on a taxi, not realizing that the driver is undercover cop Kagawa. Meanwhile, the doctor tells Hashizume's wife Mayumi that if Michiko survives the night, the worst will be over. Kagawa appears to arrest Hashizume, but Mayumi takes her husband's gun and holds him captive, begging him to let her husband keep watch over Michiko for one night. The next morning, Mayumi tries to help her husband slip away, but he returns to turn himself in.

Thoughts from Ozu
The script came from a translated novel published in New Youth (Shin Seinen) Magazine. This is my first experience of working with Okada Tokihiko. Six of the film's seven reels depict action that takes place on a single set. I lost so much sleep over the continuity it was a labor of love, and had great significance for me. Kido Shiro was full of praise for it, and even urged me to go take a break at a hot spring.

Personal Thoughts and Comments
That Night's Wife is a unique film from Ozu in that it is a suspenseful crime thriller, yet it stands among one of his most interesting silent films in the way it emerges into a definitely Ozu film. The simple story centers around an artist who steals money and is chased down by a police detective. When the detective arrives at his home, he is held at gun point by the artists wife. The film is reminiscent of a Hollywood thriller, but the emotional and visual core is purely Ozu, particularly the way the film is concentrates in family and social troubles, as the penniless artists robs the money to pay for medicine for his sick daughter. That Night's Wife takes place almost entirely within the apartment, and the mood is effectively established as tense and claustrophobic. What truly makes the film definitive Ozu is the rhythm, captured by lyrical visual patterns. Here Ozu uses expressive tracking shots as visual patterns, as well as a specific use of hand expressions to heighten the atmosphere and suspense. Ozu flawlessly edits the visual patterns and motifs resulting in a film that is at once tense, stunning, and poetic. That Night's Wife is likely to be forgotten among Ozu's more emotionally-driven silent films, but it remains a truly fascinating work from the master.