IMMORTAL LOVE / ETERNAL LOVE / BITTER SPIRIT (EIEN NO HITO). Viewed on Streaming. Restoration/preservation = ten (10) stars; cinematography = eight (8) stars; set designs/locations = six (6) stars; exterior lighting = four (4) stars; Spanish music = two (2) stars. Director Keisuke Kinoshita (who is also credited as the sole writer) provides a gripping, no-holds-barred tale of a 30-year (from the 1930s through the 1960s) totally destructive marriage relationship that neither partner has the courage/ability (or desire?) to terminate. Short of attempted murder, the protagonists are shown developing/perfecting matrimonial torture to a fine art! Strangely, suicide does not seem to be an exit strategy (except for some of the couple's offspring). The Director's ongoing message is very basic: it's never a good idea for a man to rape a servant-girl virgin (who is known to love another) in order to force her to marry him (and, perhaps, an unintended secondary message is that formally arranged marriages may not be all that bad an alternative!). The husband is a crippled war veteran; both husband and wife are emotionally crippled. Often Kinoshita's directing is a bit uneven with scenes stitched together rather than one flowing to the next. Lead actress Hideko Takamine delivers her customarily stunning performance portraying the wronged and antagonistic wife. Actor Tatsuya Nakadai turns in a fine performance playing the husband, but his character mainly serves as a De Facto punching bag for Takamine. Supporting character actresses and actors are across-the-board okay. Cinematography (2.35:1, black and white) is very good (with the wide-screen format usually filled side-to-side). Not so much for scene lighting, especially when characters are photographed in close-up with bright backgrounds: being under lit, they look like silhouettes, and facial expressions are lost in the dark. Exterior and sound-stage sets do the job (you have likely seen them several times before in other Shochiku films). Music is basically just plain weird! It consists of Spanish flamingo guitar, singer, and chorus. The latter pulls double duty as story narrator/observer and source of expository information. All vocalization is delivered in Spanish. Subtitles are close enough for Japanese dialog. Spanish singing and chorus chants are subtitled (in English) with the exception of the opening credits. Most signs/displays are translated. Highly recommended, misleading movie titles and all! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Review of Immortal Love
