Northern Elegy

Yoshiko Kuga has an interesting role here -- an unmarried young woman, part tomboy, mostly rebel, and mentally... strange. I could not always understand the motives behind her actions. The plot is straight melodrama -- she takes up with a married man (the great Masayuki Mori) whose wife is also having an affair. And it is all presented in the most Western way. Orchestras swell, characters actually embrace and kiss (oh my), women are independent (although still destined for ruin), houses are Western-style, and characters even speak French and English phrases. Gosho ('Where Chimneys Are Seen') was a good director, but if I wanted a Hollywood melodrama, I would watch a Hollywood melodrama. I watch Japanese films for that undefinable Japaneseness. I don't watch them to see an imitation of what I'm trying to get away from. 6/10.