Mizu de kakareta monogatari

Der erste unabhängige Film von Yoshida nach seinem Ausscheiden aus dem Shōchiku Studio; ein Film über eine inzestuöse Mutter-Sohn-Beziehung. Matsutani Shizuo ist ein introvertierter Büroangestellter, der allein mit seiner schönen Mutter Shizuka lebt, die eine Affäre hat mit Hashimoto, einem der mächtigen Männer der Stadt. Shizuka und Hashimoto drängen Shizuo, Hashimotos Tochter Yumiko zu heiraten, von der Shizuo glaubt, dass sie seine Halbschwester ist. Durchsetzt mit Rückblenden und Traumsequenzen, die die Sehnsüchte der Protagonist:innen offenbaren, erforscht der in kühnen Schwarzweiß-Bildern gedrehte Film die sexuelle Psychologie einer ödipalen Familienbeziehung. (Roland Domenig)

Yoshida’s first independent film after leaving the Shochiku Studio is based on a novel by Ishizaka Yōjirō depicting an incestuous mother-son relationship.
Matsutani Shizuo is an introverted office worker who lives alone with his beautiful mother Shizuka. Shizuka raised her son by herself, but has also been having an affair with Hashimoto, a powerful man in town. Shizuka and Hashimoto encourage Shizuo to marry Hashimoto’s daughter Yumiko, in whom Shizuo sees a resemblance to his mother and whom he suspects to be his half-sister. He marries Yumiko anyway but is torn between his wife and his mother. Intercutting Shizuo’s vacillations with flashbacks of his childhood and with dream sequences unveiling the protagonist’s desires, the film explores the sexual psychology of the highly Oedipal family relationships, using bold black-and-white photography and audaciously composed images.
Turning independent enabled Yoshida to tackle controversial topics such as incest and sexuality which were shunned by the major studios. The exploration of female sexuality and identity was to become a central theme in his subsequent films, which he realized together with his wife, actress Okada Mariko. (Roland Domenig)

Alle Retrospektiven-Filme, die nach der Viennale – ab dem 2.11. – im Filmmuseum gezeigt werden, können selbstverständlich auch wie gewohnt auf www.filmmuseum.at oder unter Tel. 01/533 70 54 reserviert und an der Kassa des Österreichischen Filmmuseum gekauft werden. Es gelten die Preise des Filmmuseums.

Yoshida Kijū: GOOD-FOR-NOTHING (1960), BLOOD IS DRY A.K.A BLOODY THIRST (1960), BITTER END OF A SWEET NIGHT (1961), AKITSU SPRING (1962), 18 WHO CAUSE A STORM A.K.A. 18 ROUGHS (1963), A STORY WRITTEN WITH WATER (1965), WOMAN OF THE LAKE (1966), IMPASSE (1967), THE AFFAIR (1967), AFFAIR IN THE SNOW (1968), FAREWELL TO THE SUMMER LIGHT (1968), EROS + MASSACRE (1969), HEROIC PURGATORY (1970), COUP D’ETAT (1973), A PROMISE (1986), WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1988), WOMEN IN THE MIRROR (2002), BEM-VINDO A SÃO PAULO (2004, Episode)