A moving melodrama from Kinoshita. It's not quite up there with his very best (24 Eyes, The Ballad of Narayama, A Legend - Or Was It?), but it's not too far off. In fact, I wonder if it might benefit from a second viewing. My main problem with the film is that it was a little hard to follow in its first half. It uses a pretty complex flashback structure, jumping back in forth between three time periods, which seems pretty unique for the time. I had a difficult time pinning down who was who for that first half or so before it settles down into the present for its second half. The story follows a disgraced woman (Keiko Kishi) and her son (played as an 18 year-old by Yusuke Kawazu). Kishi became pregnant by the son of the richest man in town (a small town somewhere outside of Nagano). That son was expected to join the military (presumably sometime during WWII), and he and Kishi decide to commit double suicide since their union would never be blessed. Kishi survives, though, and she and her son are begrudgingly accepted into the rich family's home - or at least their small guest house. Both are treated badly. The modern plot line follows a now 18 year-old Kawazu, still mistreated by his father's family, falling in love with his cousin (Yoshiko Kuga). The disgrace that has haunted him his whole life becomes more and more inescapable. The film is gorgeously shot. Chishu Ryu also has a small role.
