An old man, Masao (Chishu Ryu), is being rowed up the riverto the place of his youth. "Life is a short dream," he muses. Thebarren, rocky shore where he disembarks, a no-man's-land, and the house to whichhe walks, a ghost house, are something other than life, perhaps death. Life, inthis film, is framed by the distance of memory, tiny figures etched into a cameo,moving fervently about a glistening world of cotton and chrysanthemums, capturedin long-shot and punctuated by an old man's poetic voice-over. Kinoshita sustainsthis mood using iris frames and still images, horizontal pans and startlingshadows, drenching his screen with sun and then with rain. The dream that is theold man's life is of childhood sweethearts-Masao and his older cousin Tamiko,whose friendship reaches an epiphany in the fields where they work together. Butthey are torn apart by local gossip and a mother's ambitions for her son. InKinoshita's films, morality consists not of prevailing winds but of pureemotions. We recommend at least two handkerchiefs.