The Girl I Loved

Two lovers committed suicide by jumping to their deaths in Japan's cattle country. Chieko Higashiyama adopted the baby girl they left behind, raising her as the sister of her son. A the main body of the movie starts, the girl has grown into Kuniko Igawa and the son into Yasumi Hara. They each have a secret to tell each other, so they agree to reveal them at the moon festival in five days. She tells her secret first: while Hara was away in the war, she fell in love with evacuated and battle-crippled Junji Soneda. She wants the blessing of her brother and mother. So he doesn't tell her his secret: he loves her and wishes them to be married.

It's a simple story of how families sacrifice for each other and are glad for it. For his first effort as writer-director, Keisuke Kinoshita was playing it safe, relying on his actors, his usual cameraman, Hiroshi Kusuda, his own brother to write the music, and the gorgeous scenery of the mountains. It's a slight effort, compared to the movies he would turn out over the next forty years, but well done.