The
Lonely Affair of the Heart, directed by Junichi
Suzuki, is filmed mostly in black and white to reflect the
boredom and unhappiness of Orie (played by Rumi Sakakibara),
a woman in her forties who married her sister's husband after
her sister died. Shiraki (played by Masakane Yonekura), her
sixty-four-year-old husband, has given her a comfortable place
to live but little emotional fulfillment. Both have quiet
extramarital affairs, but Orie's face has wrinkles, and she
has much less money than her husband to hire the services
of a prostitute. One day a handsome man (played by Kazuya
Takahashi) suddenly appears on the premises of the house.
At first, he claims to have been drunk and confused, but in
due course filmviewers realize that he is Orie's alter ego
and that she is hallucinating. As Orie and her hallucinated
alter ego have conversations, she receives some therapy in
her quest for self-understanding, but another form of therapy
is to masturbate while she dreams about him when he is not
present. Orie also has an affair with a guitar-accompanied
singer (played by Hirokazu Umeda), whom she later learns is
married. Once, she briefly fantasizes a dream in full color
about a meal of watermelons involving Shiraki, the musician,
and her alter ego, but the dream is short. Later, Shiraki
falls seriously ill. Orie attends to her husband, but her
alter ego indicates that she will be alone when Shiraki dies.
Indeed, upon Shiraki's death, the young man disappears, presumably
into her body. Filmviewers will quickly conclude that Orie
is mentally disturbed, and few outside Japan may empathize
with her. However, the genius of the film is to demonstrate
the rigidity of Japanese culture and society, especially regarding
women. Orie's voiceovers at the beginning reveal that she
is looking for fulfillment, but in the end she has more solitude
but less connection with people than before. Women's liberation
has a long way to go in Japan. MH
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