Friday, April 3, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Aero Theatre, Santa Monica
### **ABOUT THE FILM:** *In Japanese with English subtitles.* Entrenched in the devastating reality of postwar Japan, Naruse’s masterpiece adapts Fumiko Hayashi’s final completed novel to trace the lives of two repatriated lovers reunited in the ruins of a defeated nation. The wartime affair of Tomioka, a married Forestry Ministry officer (Masayuki Mori) and typist Yukiko (Hideko Takamine) continues in the postwar rubble, but their bleak existence pales against the faraway romance that took place in French Indochina. Reluctant to leave his wife, the lecherous Tomioka comes and goes at his leisure to visit Yukiko, who clings to him desperately, propping up the vestiges of their long-lost passion over the course of years. Takamine’s heartbreaking performance is perhaps her finest hour, a role of sheer emotional magnitude that bears an agonizing love, drawn from the fading memory of what once was. FORMAT: 35mm DISTRIBUTOR: Janus Films COUNTRY: Japan