"Based on a celebrated novel of the Taisho era by Natsume Soseki, The Heart tells of an educated man obsessed with his own 'egotism' (he has treacherously stolen from his closest friend the woman he loved and thus driven him to suicide). The film demonstrates the renewed relevance of the conflict between individualism and social responsibility, already manifest in the late Meiji period, which is the novel's setting." (Noel Burch, To the Distant Observer) "Ichikawa tells this sad story with its Dostoevskian mood in a pure and subdued style. Like other Ichikawa heroes, Nobuchi is a resigned, lonely man, to whom death is very much present as a reality. The death of an epoch-the Meiji era-coincides with Nobuchi's personal death-wish. As usual Ichikawa prefers an elaborate flashback technique and is very conscious of the decorative element (e.g. the sequence of the Emperor's burial)." (Arne Svensson, Japan)