How do you improve a masterpiece? (You can't.)
Yasunari Kawabata, Nobel Prize winner in literature, creates an elegant, almost dream-like quality in the short novel, Snow Country. It reads quickly, but must be savored slowly to appreciate the nuances of denied love, and wasted beauty. The film's director, while faithful to most of the dialog, must feel the need to flesh out certain scenes, and to delete some scenes. The result may be a more understandable movie, but does not impart the same emotional depth as in the novel.
Black and white photography enhances the starkness of snow country, and the film gives an insight into 1930's Japanese social structure. 8 stars out of 10.
Yasunari Kawabata, Nobel Prize winner in literature, creates an elegant, almost dream-like quality in the short novel, Snow Country. It reads quickly, but must be savored slowly to appreciate the nuances of denied love, and wasted beauty. The film's director, while faithful to most of the dialog, must feel the need to flesh out certain scenes, and to delete some scenes. The result may be a more understandable movie, but does not impart the same emotional depth as in the novel.
Black and white photography enhances the starkness of snow country, and the film gives an insight into 1930's Japanese social structure. 8 stars out of 10.
