"Okichi" (Kinuo Yamada) is the beautiful wife of an oil merchant (played by Shôhei Hino) and together they manage to make ends meet by collecting oil from a nearby cave and selling it to local villagers. Yet, even though Okichi has a healthy, young daughter and a husband who simply adores her, she fears that life is passing her by. It's at this time that her husband asks her to counsel a young man named "Yohe" (Shingo Yasuda) who he fears is ruining his life by patronizing a prostitute by the name of "Kogiku" (Nozomi Fujikawa). What the oil merchant doesn't realize is that Okichi is secretly attracted to Yohe and, even worse, Kogiku is extremely jealous and possessive. Now rather than reveal any more of this film I will just say that because of certain cultural barriers this movie was somewhat difficult for me to completely understand. However, I believe that this particular movie has enough mystery and intrigue to keep most viewers interested from start to finish. Likewise, having two beautiful actresses like the aforementioned Kinuo Yamada and Nozomi Fujikawa certainly didn't hurt in any way either. In any case, I thought this was a good movie and I have rated it accordingly. Above average.
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