SETTING: Beginning of the 20th Century

LOCATION: Tokyo and Shinshu (inland area in central Honshu)

SYNOPSIS:
HIOKI, a university student becomes strongly attracted by Professor NOBUCHI. After repeated visits to the home of Professor NOBUCHI. HIOKI becomes aware of something wrong and sinister about the atmosphere prevailing over the home of the professor and his wife. While HIOKI returns to his home town in Shinshu because of his father's illness, Professor NOBUCHI who had grieved over the death of Emperor MEIJI, sends HIOKI a lengthy testamentary letter and commits suicide. According to this letter, NOBUCHI had an uncle who had stolen the property and wealth that NOBUCHI was rightfully heir to, and forced him into a politically arranged marriage that was refused by him. The chain of events had caused the professor's hatred of fellow humans. Upon entering university, he becomes a close friend of a fellow student KAJI. At the same time, he and KAJI both compete over the love of an attractive daughter of a widow whose boarding house they live in. The widow does not like the stubborn and somewhat gloomy nature of KAJI, and when NOBUCHI asks for the daughter's hand in marriage, accepts and consent the marriage. But this was an act of betrayal of friendship to KAJI who in desperation commits suicide. After marriage, NOBUCHI pays homage to KAJI's grave every month, but in an attempt to prevent his wife from remembering about KAJI, he always goes to KAJI's grave alone.
HIOKI after learning of these events, feels that the mystery that has been plaguing his mind has been solved.

NOTES:
This film is the screen version of a famous novel written in 1941 by NATSUME SOSEKI (1867-1916), one of the greatest novelists of Japan. The reign of Emperor MEIJI lasted from 1968 to 1912. It was during this period that Japan developed into a modernized industrial nation. Despite the many hardships of this era, most Japanese took great pride in having lived through such a period of the nation's history. SOSEKI was not a nationalist, but a liberalist who deeply mistrusted the narrow-minded nationalism that was fostered during the Meiji era. Yet when the leading person in his novel grieves over the death of Emperor MEIJI, claiming that it marks the end of his generation, one cannot help feeling that he speaks for himself as author. This is a story of an intellectual living at the turn of the generation, who was deeply concerned over his egocentric individualism.