A cable channel is now showing a Hideko Takamine film a week here and its latest showing was Gan (The Geese). It isn't until the very end, though, that you realize why the film was titled Gan.
The story takes place in the time when Japan was only about halfway into the modern world. Circa 1900.
There's one very long scene near the end of the movie that's just so well done. The young man, Okada, is walking down her, Otama's, street, intentionally I think, on his way to meet the man that will accompany him to Germany. Otama sees him coming. He, a person she hardly knows at all, is, in her mind, the only person on earth that can save her from a cruel fate. The long, wordless scene involves the entire length of the street. Their two hearts communicating through their eyes as he walks on, as she runs ahead, as she turns to 'confront' him, as he hesitates, as she finally realizes that's he's going and she'll never see him again. Hideko Takamine might be just flat out the most amazing actress you'll ever see.
The story takes place in the time when Japan was only about halfway into the modern world. Circa 1900.
There's one very long scene near the end of the movie that's just so well done. The young man, Okada, is walking down her, Otama's, street, intentionally I think, on his way to meet the man that will accompany him to Germany. Otama sees him coming. He, a person she hardly knows at all, is, in her mind, the only person on earth that can save her from a cruel fate. The long, wordless scene involves the entire length of the street. Their two hearts communicating through their eyes as he walks on, as she runs ahead, as she turns to 'confront' him, as he hesitates, as she finally realizes that's he's going and she'll never see him again. Hideko Takamine might be just flat out the most amazing actress you'll ever see.