Film info: Love Affair at Akitsu Spa
Film Information
Original Title | Love Affair at Akitsu Spa |
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English Title | Love Affair at Akitsu Spa |
Director | Kijû Yoshida |
Country | ![]() |
Year | 1962 |
Format | 35 mm |
Colour | Color |
Duration | 107 min |
Cast:
- Mariko Okada, Hiroyuki Nagato, Hidaka Sumiko, Jûkichi Uno, Masako Nakamura
Production:
- Guión: Kijû Yoshida
- Fotografía: Tôichirô Narushima
- Montaje: Yoshi Sugihara
- Producción: Mariko Okada, Masao Shirai
Synopsis
A special project to commemorate star actress Mariko Okada’s 100th film, Love Affair at Akitsu Spa is Yoshida’s first big-budget production and color film. Based on a novel by Shinji Fujiwara, Yoshida completely changed the story, extending it from the last wartime year up to 1962 and discarding the original happy end in favour of a haunting tale of unrequited love and postwar disillusion. The story of the fatal attraction between a spineless intellectual and a strong woman is conventional, but its enactment is radically new. Yoshida completely focuses on the very few days that the two protagonists meet each other at the hot springs resort of Akitsu within a period of 17 years, each in a different season, and omits the extended intervals of longing and waiting. The confrontation between Yoshida’s formal sophistication and Shôchiku’s staple genre of melodrama resulted in an exquisitely beautiful film. It is also the first colaboration between Yoshida and Okada, who produced this film and before long was to become Yoshida’s wife.