Title: 秋津温泉 (Akitsu Onsen) English Title: Akitsu Springs Released: 1962 Directed By: Yoshida Kiju Starring: Okada Mariko, Nagato Hiroyuki For me, probably even more memorable than this film was getting the chance to see Okada Mariko and Yoshida Kiju speak at the National Film Center after the movie while I was writing my essay about the film. “Watching myself at that time – I was 27 when this was filmed – brought back a lot of memories,” said the now 75 year old Mariko, who has starred in over 150 films, including Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon. Akitsu Onsen is a mixture of multiple different Japanese stories; the two that I found the most immediate connections with are Dazai Osamu’s Villon’s Wife and Kawabata Yasunari’s Snow Country. As does Akitsu Onsen, the former of these stars a main character who loses himself to drink and the company of other women, all to the despair of the other main character, the woman who loves them. The latter, Snow Country, similarly casts an onsen geisha as the main protagonist and focuses on the inevitable loneliness and sadness bound to befall such a character. Shusaku (Nagato Hiroyuki) is a despairing boy, possibly running away from the war, and suffering from some kind of illness, and alcoholism. On a train, he meets Shinko, (Okada) who takes pity on him, and lets him stay at her mother’s onsen resort. Although he is sick and bedridden at first, Shinko falls in love with Shusaku. As he slowly recovers, Shusaku seems to return Shinko’s feelings, and they share what are probably their only moments of carefree, happy time together, in the movie. Some time passes and it becomes apparent that Shusaku has a problem with alcoholism. At this point, he confesses to Shinko that he has really come to Akitsu Onsen to die and even convinces her to kill herself with him. When the moment comes, however, Shinko, who never really intended to kill herself, manages to stop Shusaku by cracking a playful joke. The two end up laughing and Shusaku does not attempt to kill himself again. Shusaku and Shinko later, and as the years go by in the movie, recount this event as the time that she saved his life. He too, refers to her and Akitsu and giving him a reason to live. Nonetheless, Shusaku continues drinking and eventually leaves the onsen and Shinko. Only four years later, after he is married and has a child, does he come back to visit. Their initial reunion is exuberant and joyous, more so for Shinko, who has longed to see Shusaku again. However, some big changes have taken place with both characters. Shinko’s mother has died and she has inherited the onsen resort which effectively makes her unable to leave Akitsu.
0 Comments
Time continues to pass and, in the greatest likeness to Snow Country, Shusaku continues to make occasional visits to the onsen, while feeling that his true obligations, or at least his reputation, lie with his wife and child in Tokyo. Thus, Shinko, who has never loved anyone else, is left with no hope and unable to leave the mountainous countryside where the resort is.
Eventually, however, the movie starts to differ greatly from both Villon’s Wife and Snow Country as Yoshida continues the story where Dazai and Kawabata left off. While many might find the seemingly abrupt, but natural, open ending of these two books to be their one of their greatest attributes, others might wish they had followed the characters to some kind of resolute ending. Yoshida certainly seems to fall into this latter camp with Akitsu Onsen as he leaves less up to the audience by completing the ending. In another sense, this differentiates his work from Dazai and Kawabata’s, in that it portrays the consequences of selfishly thinking only about one’s own feelings and desires. An interesting aside about this movie – it has the characters engage in, what can be called no less than action smoking. I would define action smoking as a scene which is constructed entirely around the character(s) doing nothing other than smoking a cigarette. A good example of action smoking occurs in a scene when Shinko runs away from the house after learning that Shusaku has left without saying anything. She runs down the road, crosses a small creek, throws her sandals, lays down on a block of concrete in the middle of the river bed, and then slowly, emphatically, and pleasurably, action smokes a cigarette. No time and detail are spared to express the point that this is exactly what the character wants to being doing at that moment. Another thing, apart from smoking, that happened a lot in this movie was the following sequence of events; Shinko becomes overwhelmed with emotions, then runs a short distance away and starts to cry. At this point, Shusaku chases after her, then says her name a couple of times while looking into her eyes. They hug and everything becomes ok; until, of course, the next time this happens all over again. I think this occurs about 10 or 11 times. Great imagery of the seasons passing in rural Japan, creative camera work, and especially Okada Mariko, all come together to make Akita Onsen a powerful watch. While it falls short of being truly comparable to Osamu’s Villon’s Wife or Kawabata’s Snow Country, it nonetheless remains a wonderful film and stands as yet another great testament to Yoshida Kiju’s legacy in Japanese film. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |