271

At first this was an interesting drama with a clever use of jumps forward in time. After a short while however it started getting repetitive very fast; instead of showing the closeness of the main lovers, the characters' inability to leave each other started to become a contrivance to drag out the melodrama, to the point I did not care about them by the end.

#272

Naruse's films are always well-made, but in my opinion they don't do much to distinguish themselves, especially compared to similar work by Mizoguchi and Ozu. Their main characteristic seems to be an air of cynicism. This one seems to be his most highly-regarded, but to me it was neither much better nor much worse than any other I'd seen. The jumps in time were the most interesting aspect. Like I said, it's well-made, and I liked it, I just didn't think it was especially noteworthy.

# 242

Interesting tale of dysfunctional love that uses its setting to make some small but pointed comments about life in postwar Japan. It never really achieved the greatness I expected, and which the first half hour gave glimpses of, but it's still a rather flawless film and Naruse's willingness to be a cynical romantic appeals to me.

259