A contemplative and ambiguous account of a love triangle, based on a Tanizaki novel. Kinuyo Tanaka portrays a young widow who rebuffs the advances of a wealthy man, then becomes the center of a scandal when he marries her sister to be near her. "An exceptionally poignant melodrama...the period scenes among Kyoto gentry and the squeeze between social proprieties and affairs of the heart evoked (Mizoguchi's) sensitive hand. There are many scenes of uniquely Japanese social rituals. At the core is Tanaka, Mizoguchi's paramount female principal, as the older sister who unwisely allows arranged marital customs to ruin three lives. The perennial mystery of Mizoguchi's films is his revelation of Tanaka's iron will and transcendental appeal....Her scene of claiming the child of a frustrated marriage is exultant, and the final shots of the distraught husband among marshy reeds is reminiscent of soulmate Murnau's Sunrise." (Andrew Sarris, Village Voice)