Bamboo Doll of Echizen

Based on a novel by Tsutomu Mizukami, a celebrated writer whose fictions also furnished plots for directors from Tadashi Imai to Masahiro Shinoda, this haunting melodrama focuses on a young bamboo worker who takes his father’s prostitute as his wife. Though uncharacteristically cold for Yoshimura, the film makes stunning use of its stark black and white cinematography, and boasts an extraordinary lead performance from Ayako Wakao