With Beauty And Sorrow - 1965 - 7/10
AKA - Utsukushisa to kanashimi to // 美しさと哀しみと

Ōki had a fling with Otoko. He was married, with a son, she was sixteen.
Pregnancy, she lost the baby, then was institutionized for depression.
Fifteen years on, now a famous writer, he decides to visit.
Otoko is a renowned painter and teacher, with devoted clique of pupils.
One of whom, Keiko, is more than a pupil, but Otoko’s lover.
She also bristles that Ōki was never punished, never suffered, and decides to exact vengeance.

Understated psychological thriller simmers and is a tense study in motives and emotions.
The successful, dismissive male. The quashed soul who leads a quiet life, and her calculating, volcanic mate.
Wintry colors are subdued, matching the outward expressions.
The overt lesbian relationship is striking for 1965.