Gan no tera

Director Yûzô Kawashima excelled in portraying the psychological tensions underlying our human relationships. This dark melodramatic tale sees two young people misused in different ways, both are internally tormented, both are bound by the social traditions of the times. Enchanting Ayako Wakao (Satoko) is a mistress by trade, her fate. When her former master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is passed on to the temple's lecherous head priest Kikuchi. She feels empathy for the harshly treated melancholy young novice monk Jinen, who resides there also. Jinen has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's absolute dependence on this man. He is both fascinated and disturbed by the interest Satoko takes in him. Jinen is confronted by his loathing of his master, the dark circumstances of his birth and his own moral weakness... Based on an autobiographical novel by Tsutomu Mizukami Gan no tera (Temple of the Geese) which won the Naoki Prize in 1961