Yearning

One of Mikio Naruse’s supreme achievements, this transcendent melodrama weaves a heartrending story of an extended family tragedy growing out of the Second World War. The great Hideko Takamine stars as a young widow attempting to carry on after her husband was killed in the war and her family grocery all but wiped out in a bombing raid. She keeps the business going, only to find herself dealing with the greedy interference of her sisters-in-law and the unwanted attention of her brother-in-law (Yuzo Kayama), who all the while pines for her. It all builds to a shattering, train-set emotional climax, subtly yet powerfully enacted by the director’s muse Takamine.