Five college friends are on a walking tour of a little town in the mountains, when one of them, Keiko Sawamura, falls ill. They bring her to the local inn, a pleasantly shabby place, and the local doctor comes to take a look; her illness was brought on by overwork, so she must rest a few days. Her friends return to Tokyo, but her stay grows more extended, as she grows into the rhythms of the poor village, where ill people see their shaman, rather than the one doctor for 5,000 people. Nonetheless, they are good-hearted, and she quietly comes to understand who she is, and what she needs to change about herself.
Heinosuke Gosho's movie can be considered on its own terms, or as exploring some of the issues that he would revisit in AN INN AT OSAKA. While I do not wish to imply that this auteur would revisit this theme until he got it right, certain stories, settings, themes and types of characters interest a director, and clearly this was the sort of movie that interested Gosho at this time. There are more conventionalities here; Miss Sawamura clearly has a crush on the handsome young doctor, but it doesn't interfere with a simple story, nor the beautiful camerawork of Mitsuo Miura.
