Chishû Ryû is seventy-three years old. He is visiting the estate he grew up on, traveling on the river river; the train is faster, but when he was young, there was no railroad. He has good eyes and good hearing still, but he's getting old. He thinks, as he travels, of when he was fifteen and in love with his cousin, Noriko Arita.
They had grown up together, and at fifteen, he didn't quite understand what he was feeling at first, nor the constant disapproval, nor the overheard conversations. She was two years older than he, so it was impossible.... besides, his sister-in-law knew it would mean giving up a large part of the estate.
It's a bittersweet movie from Keisuke Kinoshita, far more sad than his usual bitter wont. That is almost certainly due to his source material, a novel by Sachio Ito. The anger is directed less at institutions and more at people.
The camerawork is directed by Kinoshita's longtime DP, Hiroshi Kusuda, and the oval matte of the scenes when the protagonist was 15 renders the image of a rural Japan before the turn of the century more lovely than usual; the compositions have an antique feeling, that match the contemplative words of Chishû Ryû's musing narration. the images are offered in long, slow takes, often long takes that allow the audience to admire the beauty of the natural world in its innocence.
They had grown up together, and at fifteen, he didn't quite understand what he was feeling at first, nor the constant disapproval, nor the overheard conversations. She was two years older than he, so it was impossible.... besides, his sister-in-law knew it would mean giving up a large part of the estate.
It's a bittersweet movie from Keisuke Kinoshita, far more sad than his usual bitter wont. That is almost certainly due to his source material, a novel by Sachio Ito. The anger is directed less at institutions and more at people.
The camerawork is directed by Kinoshita's longtime DP, Hiroshi Kusuda, and the oval matte of the scenes when the protagonist was 15 renders the image of a rural Japan before the turn of the century more lovely than usual; the compositions have an antique feeling, that match the contemplative words of Chishû Ryû's musing narration. the images are offered in long, slow takes, often long takes that allow the audience to admire the beauty of the natural world in its innocence.