Otani is a prodigiously talented writer with a beautiful, faithful wife Sachi. While he is talented, his lives a destructive lifestyle of heavy drinking, running up debt, and forming passionate relationships with women other than his wife. In order to repay one of those debts, Sachi begins to work in a drinking establishment called “Tsubakiya’, where she quickly becomes very popular with the customers, and shines more brightly with every day that goes by. Among those drawn to her are a regular customer named Okada, a fan of Otani’s writing, and the lawyer Tsuji, an old boyfriend who once abandoned her. As Sachi becomes almost unrecognisably beautiful, Otani burns with jealousy. Brooding over both his writing and his way of life, he resolves to commit suicide with his lover Akiko.
The faithfulness of the wife in this story is unbelievable.
In this era, it's almost impossible to find such a faithful wife - all the more not when the husband is a downright bastard.
Somehow, i cannot comprehend what the husband is going through.
There's definitely some underlying message in the movie (maybe some post-war 'effects') that i failed to catch but the way the husband is always so caught up with feeling sorry for himself / being suspicious of his wife when he's the one who's been cheating on her and always thinking of death is just pure sickening.
Anyhow, great acting especially by Takako Matsu .
She's like almost 35 already but still look as good as before.
There were a few actors in this movie who used to do lead roles in Japanese drama in the 90s and it was good seeing them in action again :)