Yearning 1964

For 18 years, war widow Reiko Morita Hideko Takamine has run a grocery shop within the house of her late husband’s family. A new supermarket threatens to push the little store out of business, and Reiko’s sisters-in-law quietly conspire to transform the family’s shop into a supermarket of its own, hoping to push her aside. Among the family, the only one who stands with Reiko is her brother-in-law, the 25-year-old Kōji Morita Yūzō Kayama. He is often drawn into drunken brawls, yet his loyalty to Reiko remains clear, and he eventually confesses that he has always loved her. She responds that her feelings for him are those of a family bond, not a romantic one.

After weighing her position, Reiko chooses not to block her sisters’ plans any longer and decides to return to her own family. Kōji Morita accompanies her on the long train ride, and during the journey she finds herself softening toward him. They get off at a country inn to talk, hoping to resolve things in a quieter setting. He resumes his advances, but at the last moment she cannot face intimacy. He storms off in anger and later phones to say he is going back home.

The morning after, Reiko sees him being carried into the village on a stretcher, and learns that he has died from a fall off a cliff. She runs after the carriers, but then she reaches a point of quiet shock, her face a blank slate as the news settles in.