An Autumn Afternoon (1962)

AKA Sanma no aji

Director:
Yasujirô Ozu

Writers:
Kôgo Noda
Yasujirô Ozu

 

Shuhei Hirayama (Chishu Ryu) is an aging widower with a married eldest son, Koichi (Keiji Sada), and two unmarried children – a 24-year-old daughter Michiko (Shima Iwashita) and a younger son Kazuo (Shinichirô Mikami). Since marriage Koichi has shifted out with his wife, leaving Kazuo and Hirayama in Michiko's care.

Hirayama and his fellow classmates Kawai (Nobuo Nakamura) and Horie (Ryuji Kita) go to a class reunion where one of their teachers, Sakuma (Eijiro Tono), nicknamed the "Gourd", is in attendance. The friends tease Horie who has married a much younger wife. They reminisce about the past and Sakuma has too much to drink, and Kawai and Hirayama have to bring him home. They meet his spinster daughter Tomoko (Haruko Sugimura), who has missed the chance to marry when young, and is now too old to marry.

Koichi borrows 50,000 yen from his father to buy a refrigerator, but plans to use the excess money to buy second-hand golf clubs. His wife Akiko (Mariko Okada) is in disagreement, but finally relents. However, she decides ill-temperedly to use some of this extra money to buy for herself a white leather purse as well.

Sakuma tells his former pupils that it is owing to his own selfishness that his daughter is now an old spinster. Troubled by Sakuma's daughter's example, Hirayama decides on an arranged marriage for Michiko. He asks Koichi if Koichi's colleague Miura (Teruo Yoshida), whom Michiko is fond of, is interested in Michiko. Unfortunately, Miura is already engaged. Koichi and Hirayama break the news to a visibly upset Michiko, and later ask her if she is willing to go for a matchmaking session with a candidate Kawai has selected. Michiko agrees.

In one of the ellipses Ozu is famous for, the film forwards to Michiko's wedding day. (Michiko clearly has agreed to marry, though her bridegroom is never shown.) Michiko prepares to wed in a traditional wedding kimono. (The actual ceremony is never shown.) Hirayama goes to a bar to celebrate her wedding afterwards and ends up drunk. When he returns, Koichi and his wife go off, leaving behind Kazuo who duly goes to bed, and a melancholic Hirayama sitting in the middle of the night.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056444/

Andrei Rublev (1966)

AKA Андрей Рублёв

Director:
Andrei Tarkovsky

Writers:
Andrei Konchalovskiy
Andrei Tarkovsky

Andrei Rublev is divided into seven chapters and a prologue and an epilogue only loosely related to the main film. The main film charts the life of the great icon painter through several episodes of his life. The background is 15th century Russia, a turbulent period characterized by fighting between rival princes and the Tatar invasions.

The film's prologue shows the preparations for a hot air balloon ride. The balloon takes off from the roof of a church, with a man named Yefim (Nikolay Glazkov) roped beneath the balloon, at the very moment of arrival of an ignorant mob trying to thwart the flight. The man is highly delighted by the sight from the air, but can not prevent a crash landing. Yefim is the first of several creative characters, representing the daring escapist, whose hopes are easily crushed. After the crash, a horse is seen lolling by a pond, a symbol of life — one of many horses in the movie.

The Jester, Summer 1400: Andrei (Anatoly Solonitsyn), Danil (Nikolai Grinko) and Kirill (Ivan Lapikov) are wandering monks, looking for work. The three represent different creative characters. Andrei is the observer, a humanistic artist who searches for the good in people and wants to inspire and not frighten. Danil is withdrawn and resigned, and not as bent on creativity as on self-realization. Kirill lacks talent, yet strives to achieve prominence. He is jealous, self-righteous, very intelligent and perceptive. The three have just left the Andronikov Monastery, where they have lived many years, heading to Moscow. During a heavy rain they seek shelter in a barn, where a group of villagers is being entertained by a jester (Rolan Bykov). The jester, or skomorokh, is a bitterly sarcastic enemy of the state and the Church, who is earning a living with his scathing and obscene social commentary and by making fun of the Boyars. He ridicules the monks as they come in, and after some time Kirill leaves unnoticed. Shortly, the skomorokh is picked up by a group of soldiers, knocked out headfirst against a tree and taken away.

Theophanes the Greek, Summer-Winter-Spring-Summer 1405–1406: Kirill arrives at the Theophanes the Greek's workshop, where Theophanes the Greek (Nikolai Sergeyev), a prominent and well-recognized master, is working on another of his icons. Theophanes the Greek is portrayed as a complex character: an established artist, humanistic and God-fearing in his views yet somewhat cynical, regarding his art more as a craft and a chore in his disillusion with other people. His young apprentices have all run away to the town square, where a convicted criminal is about to be tortured and executed in public. Kirill talks to Theophanes, and the artist, impressed by his erudition, invites him to work as an apprentice on the decoration of Cathedral of the Annunciation in Moscow. Kirill refuses at first, but then accepts the offer on the only condition that Theophanes will personally come to the Andronikov Monastery and invite Kirill to work with him in view of all the fraternity and Andrei Rublev.

The three monks are back at the Andronikov Monastery. Theophanes the Greek sends a messenger to Andrei to ask him for his assistance in decorating Cathedral of the Annunciation. Both Danil and Kirill are agitated by the recognition Andrei experiences. Danil refuses to accompany Andrei and reproaches him for accepting Theophanes's offer lightly and without considering his fellows, but soon repents of his temper and wishes Andrei well. Kirill is jealous and in great anger, and he leaves the monastery for the secular world, throwing the accusations of greed in the face of the monks. Andrei leaves for Moscow with his young apprentice Foma (Mikhail Kononov). Foma is another creative character, representing the light-hearted and practical-minded commercial artist. Still he seems to be contemplative enough to get along with Andrei.

"The Andrei Passion": While walking in the woods, Andrei and Foma have a conversation about Foma's faults, especially lying. While Foma has talent as an artist, he is less concerned with the deeper meaning of his work and more concerned with practical aspects of the job, like perfecting his azure. They encounter Theophanes in the forest, and the old master sends Foma away. As he leaves, the apprentice finds a dead bird and pokes it. We cut to a conversation between Andrei and Theophanes, this time set on a stream bank. Theophanes argues that the ignorance of the Russian people is due to stupidity, while Andrei says that he doesn't understand how he can be a painter and maintain such views. "I'd have taken vows of schema long ago and settled down in a cave for good." This section contains a reenactment of Christ's Atonement, which plays as Andrei recounts the story and expresses his faith.

The Holiday, 1408: During a nightly walk Andrei encounters a group of naked pagans, whose celebration implies sensuality and lust. Andrei feels attracted by the rituals he witnesses. He is caught by the pagans and tied to a cross, and threatened to be drowned in the morning. A woman named Marfa (Nelly Snegina), only dressed with a mantle approaches Andrei. She drops her mantle, kisses and then frees him. The next morning as Andrei leaves a group of soldiers arrives and rounds up the pagans. Marfa tries to escape by running into the river and swimming near Andrei’s boat. He and his fellow monks look away in shame.

The Last Judgment, Summer 1408: Andrei and Danil are working on the decoration of a church in Vladimir. Over months, work is not progressing, as Andrei is doubting himself. He confides to Danil that his painting disgusts him and that he is unable to paint a subject such as the Last Judgement, as he doesn’t want to terrify people. He comes to the conclusion that he has lost the ease of mind that an artist needs for his work. He has a flashback during which he remembers his time working for the Grand Prince, who put out the eyes of artisans to prevent them from reproducing their beautiful work for someone else. As the flashback ends, Durochka (Irma Raush), a holy fool or Yurodivy, wanders into the church. Her feeble-mindedness and innocence leads Andrei to the idea to paint a feast.

The Raid, Autumn 1408: While the Grand Prince is away in Lithuania, the Grand Prince’s brother and a group of Tatars raid Vladimir. The invasion and the resulting carnage is shown in great detail. One famous scene shows a horse falling from a flight of stairs and being stabbed by a spear. Another famous scene shows a cow set on fire. The tatars enter the church. Andrei prevents the rape of Durochka by a Russian by slaying the perpetrator. Shaken by this event Andrei falls into self-doubt and decides to give up painting and takes a vow of silence.

The Silence, Winter 1412: Andrei is once again at the Andronikov Monastery. He neither paints nor speaks and keeps Durochka with him. After several years of absence, Kirill shows up at the monastery and asks to be taken in. The father superior allows him to return, but requires him to copy the scriptures fifteen times. One day, Tatars stop at the monastery while traveling through. One of the Tatars takes Durochka away as his eighth wife.

The Bell, Spring-Summer-Winter-Spring 1423–1424: Andrei's life turns around when he witnesses the casting of a bell. As the bellmaker has died, his son Boriska (Nikolai Burlyayev) lies to the men that he knows the secret of casting a bell. Boriska is another creative character. He is aware of his own importance and the difficult task at hand. He is able to create through a combination of natural skill and pure faith. Boriska supervises the digging of the pit, the selection of the clay, the building of the mold, the firing of the furnaces and the hoisting of the bell. Boriska collapses in tears when the bell rings perfectly at the inauguration ceremony. Witnessing the ceremony Andrei breaks his vow of silence and tells the boy that they should go together. "You’ll cast bells. I’ll paint icons."

The epilogue is the only part of the film in color and shows details of several of Andrei Rublev's icons. The icons are shown in the following order: Enthroned Christ, Twelve Apostles, The Annunciation, Twelve Apostles, Jesus entering Jerusalem, Birth of Christ, Enthroned Christ, Transfiguration of Jesus, Resurrection of Lazarus, The Annunciation, Resurrection of Lazarus, Birth of Christ, Trinity, Archangel Michael, Paul the Apostle, The Redeemer. The final scene crossfades from the icons and shows four horses at a river during rain.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060107/

Café Lumière (2003)

AKA 珈琲時光 (Kōhī Jikō)

Directed by
Hsiao-hsien Hou

Writing credits
Hsiao-hsien Hou
T'ien-wen Chu

The story revolves around a young Japanese woman (played by Hitoto Yo) doing research on Taiwanese composer Jiang Wen-Ye, whose work is featured on the soundtrack. The late composer's Japanese wife and daughter also make appearances as themselves.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0412596/

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003)

AKA Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom

Directed by
Ki-duk Kim

Writing credits
Ki-duk Kim

 

The film is divided into five segments (the five seasons of the title), each segment depicting a different stage in the life of a Buddhist monk. The segments are roughly ten to twenty years apart, and the action of each takes place during the season of its title.

Spring
We are introduced to the life of the very young Buddhist apprentice living with his master on a small floating monastery, drifting on a lake in the serene forested mountains of Korea. The apprentice and his master live a life of prayer and meditation, using an old rowboat to reach the bank of the lake where they regularly go walking, for exercise and to collect herbs. One day, in a creek amongst the rocky hills, the apprentice torments a fish by tying a small stone to it with string and laughing as it struggles to swim. Shortly after, he does the same to a frog and a snake; his master quietly observes on all three occasions, and that night ties a large, smooth rock to the apprentice as he sleeps. In the morning, he tells his apprentice that he cannot take off the rock until he unties the creatures he tormented - adding that if any of them have died, he will "carry the stone in his heart forever". The boy struggles with the load on his back through the forest, and finds the fish, lying dead on the bottom of the creek, finds the frog still alive and struggling where he left it, and finds the snake in a pool of blood, presumably attacked and killed by another animal, unable to get away. The master watches as the boy begins to cry heavily at seeing what he has done to the snake.

Summer
The apprentice (now in his teenage years) encounters a mother and daughter (dressed in modern clothes, indicating that the film takes place in modern times) walking along the forest path, looking for the lake monastery. The apprentice silently greets them and rows them across the lake to the monastery, where it is revealed that the daughter has an unspecified illness (she displays symptoms of a fever) and has been brought to the Buddhist master by her mother, hoping that she will be healed. The master agrees to take in the teenage girl for a time, and the mother leaves. Over the next few days, the apprentice finds himself sexually attracted to the girl, but is too shy to say anything; however, when he finds her sleeping in front of the Buddha statue, he is unable to resist groping her chest. She wakes up and slaps him. In a guilty panic the apprentice begins to pray incessantly, something his master notes as strange. Touching the apprentice's shoulder, the girl seems to forgive him. Eventually, the two wander off into the forest alone and have sex. They repeat the act over the next few nights, hiding their relationship from the master, until he discovers them asleep and naked, drifting around the lake in the rowboat. He wakes them up by pulling the plug out of the boat. Rather than expressing anger or disappointment, he merely warns his apprentice that "lust leads to desire for possession, and possession leads to murder", but does tell him that the girl will have to leave. The apprentice reacts emotionally to this, and in the middle of the night runs away from the monastery in pursuit of the girl, taking the monastery's Buddha statue with him.

Fall
Many years later, during the Fall, the aging master returns from a supply run to the local village. By chance he glimpses a warrant for the arrest of his former apprentice, wanted for the murder of his wife. Foreseeing the apprentice's return, he modifies the teenage monk's garments by hand, and soon afterward the adult apprentice appears in the spiritual door at the lake's edge, still full of anger and carrying the bloodstained knife with which he stabbed his wife for having started an affair with another man. Unwilling to go on, he seals his eyes, mouth and nose in a suicide ritual and sits in front of the newly returned Buddha statue, waiting for death. The master discovers him, and beats him ruthlessly, professing that while he may have killed his wife, he will not kill himself so easily. He ties his bloodied apprentice to the ceiling and sets a candle to slowly burn through the rope, then begins painting "Heart Sutra" on one side of the monastery deck, by dipping his cat's tail into a bowl of black ink. The apprentice eventually falls, and beginning his repentance, cuts his hair off and starts carving the Chinese characters out of the wood. As he carves and the master paints, two detectives arrive at the monastery and try to arrest the apprentice, but the master asks them to let him finish his task. The apprentice continues without stopping, and collapses into sleep immediately upon finishing. Seemingly influenced by the soothing presence of the master, the detectives help the old monk paint his apprentice's carvings in orange, green, blue and purple. The apprentice finally wakes up, and is taken away by the detectives. After they leave, the master, knowing he is at his end, builds a pyre in the rowboat. He seals his ears, eyes, nose and mouth with paper in the same suicide ritual and meditates as he is suffocated and burned to death. One can see his tears in the paper seals as flames engulf him.

Winter
The middle-aged apprentice returns to the frozen lake and to his former home, which has been drifting uninhabited for years. He finds his master's clothes, laid out just before his death, and digs his master's remains, his teeth only, out of the frozen rowboat. He carves a statue of the Buddha out of ice, wraps his master's teeth in red cloth, and sets them in the statue under a waterfall. He finds a book of choreographic meditative stances, and begins to train and exercise in the freezing weather. Eventually, a woman comes to the monastery with her baby son and a shawl wrapped around her face. She leaves her son and flees in the night, but as she runs across the frozen lake she stumbles into the hole dug by the monk. He finds her body the next day, and he removes her from the water to look at her face. He ties the monastery's large, circular stone to his body and retrieves another statue from the monastery before climbing to the summit of the tallest surrounding mountain. As he climbs, he reflects upon the fish, the frog, and the snake. He prays at the summit, and leaves the statue overlooking the monastery.

...and Spring
Finally, returning to "Spring", the cycle is completed: the new master lives in the monastery with the abandoned baby, now his apprentice. The boy is shown to torment a tortoise, echoing his predecessor.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0374546/

Early Spring (1956)

AKA Soshun

Director:
Yasujirô Ozu

Writers:
Kôgo Noda
Yasujirô Ozu

The film starts on a typical working day in metropolitan Tokyo: office worker Shoji Sugiyama (Ryō Ikebe) wakes up to prepare to commute to work, attended to by his wife, Masako (Chikage Awashima). The couple is childless but used to have a young son who died years ago of an illness.

During a hiking trip with friends, Shoji spends moments alone on a hitchhiked lorry with a fellow worker, typist Kaneko (Keiko Kishi), nicknamed "Goldfish" for her large eyes. After the trip Kaneko makes advances at Shoji. The two has an affair. Masako suspects something is amiss behind her back but says nothing, even when Shoji spends extra time with Kaneko, his war comrades and a dying friend. The two becomes progressively estranged.

The friends too suspect something is going on between Shoji and Kaneko and finally confronts Kaneko during a gathering, advising her not to come between a married couple. Aggrieved, Kaneko goes to visit Shoji late in the night. The affair finally gets disclosed, and Masako and Shoji have a falling-out. Masako is angry enough with Shoji to leave for her mother's home the next morning.

Shoji accepts a job to go to Mitsuishi, at Okayama Prefecture, an out-of-the-way provincial town. Kaneko is upset that he is leaving but later accepts it. Meanwhile, Shoji begins to regret his affair and tries to bring his wife home, but Masako only goes back after he has left for Mitsuishi. The couple meet at Mitshuishi, where they promise to forget everything before and strive for marital happiness.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049784/

Taste of Cherry (1997)

AKA طعم گيلاس (Ta'm-e gīlās)

Directed by
Abbas Kiarostami

Writing credits
Abbas Kiarostami

 

Mr Badii (Homayon Ershadi), a middle-aged man, drives through Tehran looking for someone to do a job for him, and he offers a large amount of money in return. During his drives with prospective candidates, Badii reveals that he plans to kill himself and has already dug the grave. He needs someone to throw earth on his body, after his death. He does not discuss why he wants to commit suicide.

His first recruit is a young, shy Kurdish soldier, who refuses to do the job and flees from Badii's car. His second recruit is an Afghan seminarist, who also declines because he has religious objections against suicide. The third is an Azeri taxidermist. He is willing to help Badii because he needs the money for his sick child, but tries to talk him out of it; he reveals that he too wanted to commit suicide a long time ago but chose to live when he tasted mulberries. The Azeri promises to throw earth on Badii if he finds him dead in the morning. That night, Badii lies in his grave while a thunderstorm begins. After a long blackout, the film ends with camcorder footage of Kiarostami and the film crew filming Taste of Cherry.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120265/

Ken Park (2002)

Directed by
Larry Clark

Edward Lachman

Writing credits
Larry Clark

Harmony Korine

The film begins with the public suicide of Ken Park at a local skateboarding park. The film features four friends: Shawn, Tate, Peaches, and Claude. It covers their interactions with their families (or lack thereof), and their friends in a dysfunctional society. The film depicts controversial topics such as sexuality, sexual experimentation, incest, teenage suicide and, to a lesser extent, murder.

The title "Ken Park" does not refer to a location, but rather to a character in the film, whose death is used as a plot device at the end of the film. Although never directly stated, Ken Park appears to be set over several days, spanning Friday to Sunday. The plot of Ken Park is non-linear, and often switches between different characters over this time period.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209077/

Irreversible (2002)

AKA Irréversible

Directed by
Gaspar Noé

Writing credits
Gaspar Noé

Irréversible contains thirteen scenes presented in reverse chronological order. The film begins with two men in a small apartment suite. One of them is the "Butcher", the protagonist of Noé's previous film, I Stand Alone. In a drunken monologue, the Butcher reveals that he was arrested for having sex with his daughter. Their philosophical musings shift to the subject of a commotion in the streets outside, which is derisively attributed to the patrons of a nearby homosexual S&M nightclub called The Rectum. Minutes earlier, two men named Marcus and Pierre are escorted out of that nightclub by the police. Marcus is on a stretcher, apparently injured, and Pierre is in handcuffs. Men on the streets shout homophobic insults at them. Earlier that evening, Marcus and Pierre arrived at the club in a frantic search for somebody nicknamed le Tenia — "the Tapeworm". Marcus finds the man believed to be le Tenia and attacks him. The man pins Marcus down, then breaks his arm and attempts to rape him. Pierre rescues Marcus by bludgeoning the attacker's face using a fire extinguisher, fatally crushing the man's skull after repeated blows. Before entering the club, it is learned that Marcus and Pierre went in search of le Tenia after questioning several prostitutes. Apparently their goal is retribution for someone's rape. They track down a transsexual prostitute named Concha who identifies the rapist as le Tenia after Marcus threatens to slash her with a piece of broken glass. Concha also reveals that the rapist is likely to be found at a nightclub called The Rectum. Marcus and Pierre were aided in their search by a street thug named Mourad and his friend Layde. Mourad promised to help them find le Tenia for money so that Marcus could have his revenge, rather than leave the matter to the police. It is revealed that le Tenia anally raped Marcus' girlfriend Alex, and beat her so severely that she fell into a coma. The rape takes place after Alex encounters le Tenia beating Concha in a pedestrian underpass. Le Tenia then turns his attention on Alex and threatens her with a knife to her throat. He then proceeds to rape Alex, pinning her down on her stomach and threatening her. After raping Alex, le Tenia brutally beats her. From this scene, it becomes clear that Pierre and Marcus attack the wrong man later in the story. Le Tenia was in fact standing right next to the man Pierre killed in club Rectum. In the next scene, we see Alex, Marcus, and Pierre at a party. Alex is annoyed by Marcus' unrestrained use of drugs and alcohol and his flirtatious behavior with other women, and consequently decides to leave the party. The next scene shows the trio discussing sex in a metro station and in the train. It is revealed Pierre used to be Alex' lover. The penultimate scene shows Marcus and Alex lying in bed after sex. Alex reveals she might be pregnant, and Marcus is pleased with the possibility. To prepare for the party, Marcus leaves to buy wine and Alex has a shower. Alone, Alex uses a home pregnancy test that confirms she is now carrying a child, for which she is elated. She is shown sitting on the bed clothed, with her hand on her belly. A poster for Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the tagline "The Ultimate Trip", is above the headboard. The final colorful scene shows Alex reading An Experiment with Time by John William Dunne in a park, surrounded by playing children. Beethoven's 7th Symphony is heard in the background. The camera spins around faster and faster until it blacks out into a strobe effect, accompanied by a pulsing, roaring sound. A rapidly-spinning image of the cosmos can be dimly perceived. The final title card reads: "Time destroys everything" — a phrase uttered in the film's first scene by one of the men in the apartment.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0290673/

Autumn Sonata (1978)

AKA Höstsonaten

Director:
Ingmar Bergman

Writer:
Ingmar Bergman

 

The plot focuses on a prominent concert pianist, Charlotte Andergast (Ingrid Bergman), who has been neglectful and dismissive of her children, whom she has not seen in over seven years. Charlotte decides to make a visit to her eldest daughter, Eva (Liv Ullmann) at her remote house, where she lives with her husband, Viktor (Halvar Björk). Upon arrival, Charlotte discovers that her other daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), who is mentally and physically disabled (and was placed in an institution by Charlotte) is living with and being taken care of by Eva. Wounded by the neglect and selfishness of her mother, Eva begins to spill all of the things she has ever wanted to say to Charlotte, and as the evening progresses, the tension culminates to a wave of harsh words and exposure of true feelings that change their mother-daughter relationship forever.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077711/

Eureka (2000)

Directed by
Shinji Aoyama

Writing credits
Shinji Aoyama

 

Eureka is a drama, set mainly in rural Japan, and is mostly shot in sepia tone. It tells the story of a young boy and girl, Naoki Tamura and Kozue Tamura who are on a bus when it is hijacked by a crazed killer. They, along with the bus driver, Makoto Sawai, are the only survivors and flee together. But upon their attempted return to their normal lives, Makoto becomes a suspect in a series of murders and the children become orphaned. These numerous unfortunate events bring the three, along with the orphans' cousin, Akihiko, back together, forming a family and working toward reconciliation from the shared hijacking experience.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0243889/

Tokyo Twilight (1957)

AKA Tôkyô boshoku

Director:
Yasujirô Ozu

Writers:
Kôgo Noda
Yasujirô Ozu

Akiko Sugiyama (Ineko Arima) is a young college graduate girl learning English shorthand. Her elder sister Takako (Setsuko Hara), running away from an unhappy marriage, has returned home to stay with Akiko and their father Shukichi (Chishu Ryu) in Tokyo, together with her toddler girl. Akiko has a relationship with her college boyfriend Kenji, which results in an unwanted pregnancy. Later, Akiko has an abortion on learning her boyfriend is avoiding her.

While going to a mahjong parlour to look for Kenji, Akiko comes across its proprietress Kisako (Isuzu Yamada), who seems to know a lot about her family. Back at home, Takako hears about Kisako from Akiko, and pieces together the fact that she is their long-lost mother. Takako visits the parlour to ask Kisako not to reveal to Akiko who she really is – but the plan backfires. Akiko learns of her visit and goes to confront Takako. Takako then discloses to her Kisako is their mother, who has run away with another man when Akiko was still a toddler. Shaken, Akiko goes to confront Kisako to ask if she is the daughter of her father. She leaves in a huff, angered by Kisako abandoning her as a child, then goes to a Chinese noodle shop for some sake. Her boyfriend Kenji enters, and the two has a tiff. Akiko leaves angrily, but is hit by a train at an intersection just outside the shop.

Akiko is badly injured and she expresses the wish to live and start life over again in the presence of her father and sister. In the next scene however, in one of Ozu's famous ellipses, a bitter Takako goes to visit her mother to tell her the news of Akiko's death. Kisako is distraught, and agrees with her new husband that she will leave Tokyo for his new assignment. She goes to the Sugiyamas to offer her last condolescence, and to tell Takako of her decision. Unfortunately, Takako does not go to send her off at the railway station.

In the last scene of the film, Takako reveals to her father that she is going back to her husband to try to make their marriage work again. She does not want her toddler daughter to follow in the path of Akiko, who lacks the love of one parent. Shukuchi agrees with her decision.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051093/

El Topo (1970)

Director:
Alejandro Jodorowsky

Writer:
Alejandro Jodorowsky

The movie takes place in two parts. The first half resembles a western; albeit a surreal one. The second is a love story of redemption and rebirth.

The first half, set in an unnamed desert, opens with El Topo (played by Jodorowsky himself) traveling with his naked young son. They find a town whose citizens have been slaughtered and El Topo hunts down and kills the outlaws and their leader, a fat balding Colonel. El Topo abandons his son to the monks of the settlement's mission and rides off with a woman whom the Colonel and his outlaws had kept captive as a slave. The woman, whom El Topo names Mara, convinces him to defeat the four great gun masters to become the greatest gunman in the land. He duels each of them and during each duel, El Topo emerges victorious through trickery or luck.

After the first duel, an unnamed woman with a male voice finds the couple and offers to serve as a guide. Her involvement will prove El Topo's downfall. Ridden with guilt, El Topo destroys his own gun and revisits the places where he killed those masters. The unnamed woman then confronts El Topo and shoots him multiple times in the manner of stigmata. Mara then betrays him and rides off with the woman after shooting El Topo.

The second half of the movie takes place years later, after El Topo is rescued by a band of deformed outcasts. In their underground community he meditates on the "four lessons" and when he awakes, he is 'born again'. He decides to help the outcasts escape their subterranean prison and, together with a dwarf girl who becomes his lover, performs for the depraved cultists of the neighbouring town to raise money to buy dynamite for this cause.

At the same time, a mysterious monk arrives in town and becomes the new priest. It is revealed that the new priest is actually El Topo's own son. He threatens to kill El Topo, but decides to spare El Topo's life until he finishes digging the escape for the underground people. With the help of his girlfriend and son, El Topo digs an exit out of the cave. Just as the exit appears, the underground people flee the mountain and are massacred by the cultists.

El Topo helplessly witnesses his community being murdered by the cultists and is shot himself. He ignores his wounds and massacres the cultists in the town. After all are killed, El Topo takes an oil lamp and immolates himself. El Topo's son and girlfriend survive the massacre and make a grave for his remains, which becomes as much a beehive as the first gun master's grave. His dwarf girlfriend gives birth to their child at the same time as his death, and the son of El Topo, now dressed in his father's garments, the dwarf, and the child ride off on a horse in the same fashion that the Son of El Topo and El Topo had in the beginning of the film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067866/