, also titled ''Love Betrayed'', is a 1973 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Kaneto Shindō was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film producer, and writer, who directed 48 films and wrote scripts for 238. His best known films as a director include '' Children of Hiroshima'', '' The Naked Island'', '' Onibaba'', '' Kuroneko'' a ...

. It is based on the 1914 novel ''

Kokoro is a 1914 Japanese novel by Natsume Sōseki, and the final part of a trilogy starting with ''To the Spring Equinox and Beyond'' and followed by '' The Wayfarer'' (both 1912). Set in the Meiji era, the novel tells of the acquaintance between ...

'' by

Natsume Sōseki , born , was a Japanese novelist. He is best known for his novels ''Kokoro'', ''Botchan'', ''I Am a Cat'', ''Kusamakura (novel), Kusamakura'' and his unfinished work ''Light and Darkness (novel), Light and Darkness''. He was also a scholar of Br ...

Cast

* Noboru Matsuhashi as K * Kazunaga Tsuji as S *

Nobuko Otowa was a Japanese actress who appeared in more than 100 films between 1950 and 1994. Life and career A graduate of Takarazuka Girl's Opera School, Otowa was first signed to Daiei studios, before becoming a freelance actress by the early 1950s. A ...

as Mrs. M. * Anri as I-ko *

Taiji Tonoyama was a Japanese character actor who made many appearances in films and on television from 1939 to 1989. He was a close friend of Kaneto Shindo and one of his regular cast members. He was also an essayist. In 1950 he helped form the film company ...

as Father of S * Yasuo Arakawa as Boy * Sotomi Kotake as Girl

Literary source

Sōseki's novel has been adapted for film and television numerous times, the first time for cinema by

Kon Ichikawa was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His work displays a vast range in genre and style, from the anti-war films '' The Burmese Harp'' (1956) and '' Fires on the Plain'' (1959), to the documentary '' Tokyo Olympiad'' (1965), which won t ...

in 1955 as '' The Heart''. For his version, writer/director Shindō moved the story's

Meiji era The was an Japanese era name, era of History of Japan, Japanese history that extended from October 23, 1868, to July 30, 1912. The Meiji era was the first half of the Empire of Japan, when the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feu ...

setting to the 1970s and put his focus only on the novel's third and final part, "Sensei to isho" ("Sensei's testament").

Reception

While

Louis Frédéric Louis-Frédéric Nussbaum, also known as Louis Frédéric or Louis-Frédéric (1923–1996), was a French scholar, art historian, writer and editor. He was a specialist in the cultures of Asia, especially India and Japan. Early life Louis-Fréd ...

ranked ''The Heart'' among Shindō's important films, Max Tessier criticised Shindō's "leaden directing" and "heavy-handed psychology".

References

External links

* 1973 films 1973 drama films Japanese drama films Films directed by Kaneto Shindo Films based on Japanese novels 1970s Japanese films Films scored by Hikaru Hayashi Films based on works by Natsume Sōseki {{Japan-film-stub