A Distant Cry from Spring (1980)

A mysterious stranger appears at the door of a farmhouse on a stormy night and asks for shelter. The young widow who owns the farm puts him up in the barn. At dawn, he helps to deliver a ... See full summary »

Director:

Yôji Yamada

Writers:

Yoshitaka Asama, Yôji Yamada (screenplay)

Stars:

Ken Takakura, Chieko Baishô, Hidetaka Yoshioka

8 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ken Takakura	...	Kôsaku Tajima
Chieko Baishô	...	Tamiko Kazami
Hidetaka Yoshioka	...	Takeshi Kazami
Tetsuya Takeda
Noko Konoha
Mizuho Suzuki
Tokuko Sugiyama
Tappei Shimokawa
Yasujirô Ono
Hirohisa Sonoda
Takuji Aoki
Gô Awazu
Kyôichi Satô
Megumi Otake
Kazuhiko Kasai

Storyline

A mysterious stranger appears at the door of a farmhouse on a stormy night and asks for shelter. The young widow who owns the farm puts him up in the barn. At dawn, he helps to deliver a calf and, just as mysteriously and distantly, disappears down the road. In the spring, he returns to stay as a farmhand, gains the respect of the widow and the devotion of her young son, and begins to end their feelings of loneliness. When an intruder, in the person of a rich merchant, shows up and presses his attentions on the widow, the farmhand saves her from his attentions. But there is a mystery about where the stranger came from; and why, after winning the hearts of the widow and her son, he has to go away again.

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Plot Keywords:

mysterious stranger | ranch | manhood | hope | loyalty | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

17 October 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

A Distant Cry from Spring

Filming Locations:

Nakashibetsu, Hokkaido, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shôchiku Eiga

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

User Reviews

Simple story told with great charm and emotional depth

I first saw this film at the Hong Kong International Film Festival in 1981 and have often looked for it since (without any luck). Of the 50 films I saw in those 16 days (including masterpieces by Angelopoulos, and Syberberg's Hitler, A Film From Germany), Yamada's simple story turned out to be my favorite. When it recently turned up in a 5-disk Yoji Yamada box set, I immediately ordered it. Well, the disk is very poor quality, a murky transfer with the widescreen compositions butchered by a truly wretched pan-and-scan job -- and yet the quality of the film still manages to shine through.

On its surface, there's nothing particularly remarkable about A Distant Cry From Spring. A widow struggles to maintain a small farm in a remote area of Hokkaido, fighting the elements and raising her young son. One brutally stormy night, a stranger appears at the door looking for shelter. Though wary, the widow offers him her hospitality. He leaves, but then returns in the spring and asks for work, desiring only room and board in return. What follows is the depiction of a slowly developing emotional bond set against a beautifully observed portrait of daily life on the farm, an endless round of backbreaking chores which constantly threaten to overwhelm the lonely woman.

There is nothing terribly surprising in the revelations which eventually emerge about the characters, but they are so finely drawn and their emotional lives resonate with such authenticity, that only a cold-blooded viewer could fail to be moved by the film's resolution.

Yamada is a master of emotional nuance and a brilliant observer of the small details of ordinary lives, which he obviously holds in some kind of awe, and in which he finds a kind of magic. He makes you feel for the characters without ever stooping to sentimentality or easy manipulation. His work deserves to be more widely known, and he certainly deserves better treatment from DVD distributors.