Skip to main content

Plot

This Japanese drama, the first to deal with some of the after-effects of the Hiroshima bomb, chronicles the quest of a respected drama teacher to find sexual satisfaction after he learns that the bomb blast has rendered him impotent. Nothing seems to work, so the teacher travels to his mountain villa for a vacation. But for his housekeeper, a war widow, the man lives alone. One day, he espies two young lovers. He tells the woman of his sorrow and frustration. She suggests that he observe one of her village customs: every spring the village males break into the bedrooms of available women and make love. She invites him to her room to watch. Sure enough, three men try to break into her house. This arouses the schoolteacher who chases them away. The next night he disguises himself and has sex with her himself. Naturally he is utterly delighted and he returns to her every night. When he begins suspecting that she is entertaining other lovers, he confronts her then leaves the village. Autumn comes and he goes back to her village. There he learns that she died from a tubal pregnancy. He also learns that she sacrificed her virtue to him by hiring those three fellows to pretend to enact the ritual. The lonely, guilt-filled teacher is last seen standing alone to watch the snow falling softly on the mountains.
MPAA Rating:
Genre(s):
Drama
Run Time:
97min.
Director(s):
Kaneto Shindo
Starring:
Hideo Kanze , Nobuko Otowa , Kaori Shima
Themes:
Haunted By the Past,Starting Over
Tone:
Bittersweet,Compassionate,Intimate,Poignant,Tearjerking
Keywords:
Japan,custom [habit or practice],death,disguise,drama-teacher,guilt,impotence [sexual],post-war,pregnancy,reputation,room,sex,snow,suspicion,vacation,villa
Language:
Japanese