After watching Delicate Skilful Fingers (1972-also reviewed) I looked down the list of other Japanese films waiting to be viewed. Having a Arrow box set of 3 films by him waiting on the shelf to be viewed,I was pleased to find that I unknowingly had a 4th tile from auteur Yoshishige Yoshida not yet played,I went to meet the woman of the lake.
View on the film:
Backed by an ominous wood instruments score by Sei Ikeno, co-writer/ (with Toshiro Ishido and Yasuko Ono) directing auteur Yoshishige Yoshida & cinematographer Tatsuo Suzuki play a impeccable, eerie Japanese New Wave (JNW) atmosphere over ultra-stylised silhouettes of Mizuki and Kitano keeping their affair in the shadows. Snapping their liaisons, Yoshida brings it into contact with daylight in a deeply sensual mood, shining from graceful overhead tracking shots giving a birds eye view of Momoi getting close to the woman in the photos, against the laid bare JNW streets masked in shadows,to the mesmerising surreal activity on the beach and the deep focus, delicately framed final train ride Mizuki and Momoi take.
Photographed from Yasunari Kawabata's novel, the adaptation continues Yoshida's theme of going against the grain in a run of Anti-Melodramas, where instead of being at the peak of passion,the affair between Mizuki and Kitano is in it's dying embers when Kitano takes naked pics of Mizuki, and Mizuki's emotions being withdrawn,rather than overcome,when Momoi reveals he took the photos after secretly watching the affair for months. Encountering Mizuki on a beach where a film production is taking place, the writers brilliantly frame the Anti-Melodrama with Yoshida's other major theme of the alteration in photos/film from reality, via Momoi's obsession over Mizuki being exactly like her photos,over riding desire for money,coming into sharp focus when confronted by the staging of proactive scenes taking place in the film production.
Continuing her collaboration with Yoshida after they got married in 1964, Mariko Okada gives an incredibly expressive, subtle performance as Mizuki,thanks to Okada giving a thoughtful restrained gaze to Mizuki, which brings out a poetic quality to the end of the affair for the lady of the lake.
View on the film:
Backed by an ominous wood instruments score by Sei Ikeno, co-writer/ (with Toshiro Ishido and Yasuko Ono) directing auteur Yoshishige Yoshida & cinematographer Tatsuo Suzuki play a impeccable, eerie Japanese New Wave (JNW) atmosphere over ultra-stylised silhouettes of Mizuki and Kitano keeping their affair in the shadows. Snapping their liaisons, Yoshida brings it into contact with daylight in a deeply sensual mood, shining from graceful overhead tracking shots giving a birds eye view of Momoi getting close to the woman in the photos, against the laid bare JNW streets masked in shadows,to the mesmerising surreal activity on the beach and the deep focus, delicately framed final train ride Mizuki and Momoi take.
Photographed from Yasunari Kawabata's novel, the adaptation continues Yoshida's theme of going against the grain in a run of Anti-Melodramas, where instead of being at the peak of passion,the affair between Mizuki and Kitano is in it's dying embers when Kitano takes naked pics of Mizuki, and Mizuki's emotions being withdrawn,rather than overcome,when Momoi reveals he took the photos after secretly watching the affair for months. Encountering Mizuki on a beach where a film production is taking place, the writers brilliantly frame the Anti-Melodrama with Yoshida's other major theme of the alteration in photos/film from reality, via Momoi's obsession over Mizuki being exactly like her photos,over riding desire for money,coming into sharp focus when confronted by the staging of proactive scenes taking place in the film production.
Continuing her collaboration with Yoshida after they got married in 1964, Mariko Okada gives an incredibly expressive, subtle performance as Mizuki,thanks to Okada giving a thoughtful restrained gaze to Mizuki, which brings out a poetic quality to the end of the affair for the lady of the lake.