The Temple of Wild Geese (6.5)

Movie · 1962 · 1 h 38 min · Drama

Satoko is a mistress by trade or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's lascivious head priest Kikuchi. She is drawn to a melancholy young acolyte, Jinen, who has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's utter dependence on the man. Jinen is both fascinated and disturbed by Satoko's interest in him; he is similarly caught between loathing of Kikuchi and of the dark circumstances of his birth and his own moral weakness. The story unfolds in a dreamlike manner—a flashback inspired by a now-infamous image on a silkscreen in the souvenir shop at the so-called Temple of the Wild Geese.

Directed by: 川島雄三

Starring 若尾文子, 三島雅夫, 木村功, 高見國一, 二代目 中村鴈治郎, 萬代峰子, Yoshiko Kamo, 小沢昭一, 西村晃, 荒木忍

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