Saraba natsu no hikari

The architect Kawamura Makoto visits Europe in search of the archetype of a defunct church, which he saw in a sketch as a student. In Lisbon, he encounters Naoko, a married furniture buyer living in Paris who is traumatized by the loss of her family to the Nagasaki atomic bomb. Initially bound together by their common Japanese origin and a sense of displacement in a foreign Western world, affection develops between them during subsequent encounters in various European countries. The film follows the couple’s dance of intimacy and distance. Every time the man’s unfulfilled dream and the woman’s unspoken past come together, a forgotten place appears before them – Nagasaki.
Commemorating the inauguration of their round-the-world-route in 1967, Japan Airlines approached Yoshida to make a film in Europe. This resulted in FAREWELL TO THE SUMMER LIGHT, a pan-European “road-movie” shot in Portugal, Spain, France, Sweden, Denmark and Italy. The lyrical quality of the film’s dialogues owes much to poets Hasegawa Ryūsei and Yamada Masahiro, who wrote the screenplay. It was also Yoshida’s second time working with composer Ichiyanagi Toshi (first husband of Yoko Ono), who also became a regular collaborator of Yoshida. (Roland Domenig)

All retrospective films that will be shown at the Filmmuseum after the Viennale - from 2.11. - can of course also be reserved as usual at filmmuseum.at or by calling 01/533 70 54 and purchased at the box office of the Austrian Film Museum. The prices of the Austrian Film Museum apply.

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)