Bokuseki

Daijirô Natsukawa is the new head researcher at an experimental hospital where they are doing research on encephalitis. He has just taken over from Takeshi Sakamoto, his decline and death will drive much of the story in this movie. The staff under Natsukawa is dedicated, particularly old maid Ranko Akagi; as an unmarried woman in her forties, she is viewed as a prodigy with a heart of stone. Yet when Sakamoto dies, she brings in her daughter, Michiyo Kogure. Despite her being a byblow of of an unsanctioned affair, she and Natsukawa fall in love, despite Miss Akagi's seemingly violent opposition.

It's pure soap opera of a variety that doesn't interest me terribly, alas. By the end, it seemed to me, most of the problems were a result of people keeping secrets -- although the reasons, unlike some idiot-plotted stories, made some sense -- and the solution was invariably telling the secret. The acting is decent, the camerawork, particularly the endpieces set in the mountains, is quite lovely, and if you have a taste for this sort of movie, I expect you'll enjoy it. For me, at a bit more than two hours, it seemed endless.