Release Date

June, 23rd, 1959

Running Time

107 min

Genre

Feature

Color

Color

Screening Format

-,HDCAM SR

Screen Size

Cinema Scope (1:2.35)

Sound Processing

-

[ Directed by ]

• ICHIKAWA Kon

[ Cast ]

• KYO Machiko
• KANO Junko
• NAKADAI Tatsuya

[ Staff ]

• WADA Natto ── Screenplay
• HASEBE Keiji ── Screenplay
• ICHIKAWA Kon ── Screenplay

[ Production Company ]

DAIEI

[ Distributor (Japan) ]

DAIEI

[ Story ]

Mr. Kenmochi, in his early sixties, is enjoying an obviously happy life in his Kyoto home. A man of artistic temperament, he is not merely an art-critic and an antiquarian, but also a connoisseur of beautiful things and a dilettante.
He complains of the loss of his physical energy and secretly visits a university hospital to have injections of various tonics in order to fully enjoy his sex life with lkuko, his wife, a rare beauty, who is many years younger than himself.
Eventually finding drugs no longer effective, Kenmochi chooses an unusual method for rejuvenation, in jealousy. He arranges for his wife to meet young Kimura, hoping to rejuvenate himself with the flame of jealousy as the two become more and more intimate.
Kimura becomes fascinated by lkuko's physical charm. A few days later after Toshiko, Kenmochi's daughter who is engaged to marry Kimura, has moved to a room in the house of her French teacher, Kenmochi is surprised at receiving a visit from his daughter. She tells him that her mother took bath at her place and fainted, having dropped in after going to the cinema with her and Kimura. "She's alone with Kimura now, and it's already twenty minutes since I left," she tells her father. Kenmochi rushes out into the rain, his mind disturbed for the first time.
One day Kenmochi summons Toshiko and Kimura and tells them they must fix the date of their wedding. That very night he collapses over lkuko in bed with a stroke. Realizing that his last moments are nearby, he coaxes lkuko to undress so he can gaze at her, and while he greedily enjoys the sight of her fascinating body, he breathes his last.

【Quoted from the database of Kadokawa Corporation】
【Quoted from Unijapan Film Quarterly 1959 2.4】

[ Contact (International) ]

KADOKAWA CORPORATION
International Sales, Motion Picture Business
2-13-3 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8177
Rep: NATSUNO Takeshi (President)
Attn: MORI Chiyo
tel: +81 50 1746 1220
E-mail: mori-c@kadokawa.jp
http://www.kadokawa.co.jp