, also known as ''The Rage of Love'', is a 1988

Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

directed by

Kinji Fukasaku was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking," Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty yakuza films, typified by the ''Battles Without Honor ...

. The film portrays the movements of society and art in the Taishō period from the viewpoint of

Akiko Yosano Yosano Akiko (Shinjitai: , seiji: ; 7 December 1878 – 29 May 1942) was the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji era as well as the Taishō and early Shōwa eras of ...

Plot

One month after falling in love with the writer Hiroshi Yosano, Akiko leaves her parents to move to Tokyo to be with him. After they marry, Akiko faces gossip that she drove Hiroshi's wife away. Upset at her poetry, some Japanese citizens consider Akiko a traitor and set fire to her house. Hiroshi Yosano grows poor attempting to continue circulation of the magazine ''Bright Star''. After attending the opera, Akiko is knocked over by a motorcycle driven by the author Takeo Arishima. He sends her a Western outfit as an apology gift but she brings it back to his home to return it to him. The editor Akiko Hatano pressures Arishima to provide an essay about suicide for her publication but he is reluctant to do so. Hiroshi runs for election to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

, funded by the uncle of Tomiko Yamakawa, Akiko's former romantic rival. Akiko makes negative statements about the campaign and Hiroshi eventually loses, but chooses to stay with Tomiko while she recovers from tuberculosis. The actress Sumiko hangs herself after her lover Hogetsu commits suicide. At the memorial service, Arishima asks Akiko to come with him to his father's farm at the foot of Mount Yōtei in

Hokkaido is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The lar ...

. Akiko tells her children that she will return by Sunday. In Hokkaido, Arishima is briefly arrested for holding a socialist meeting with the farmers. Tomiko dies and Hiroshi returns home. Akiko returns home from Hokkaido days later than expected and her children have grown to hate her for her selfish actions. Arishima and the editor Akiko Hatano decide to commit suicide together. They stop themselves at the last moment several times until they are caught in an embrace by her husband, who threatens to sue for adultery. They then hang themselves together at Arishima's home. After the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake destroys the Yasano home, Akiko reads that her friends the anarchist Sakae Osugi and Noe Itou have been executed by the police. When she sees two of their anarchist friends being dragged by chains behind mounted police, she rushes to give them some rice balls and encourages them to live on. Akiko and Hiroshi commit themselves to living on and rebuilding their home.

Cast

Sayuri Yoshinaga is a Japanese actress and activist. She has won four Japan Academy Best Actress awards, more than any other actress, and has been called "one of the foremost stars in the postwar world of film." Career Her first media appearance was in the rad ...

Keiko Matsuzaka (born July 20, 1952) is a Japanese actress. Early life Born in Ōta, Tokyo, her father was a naturalized South Korean while her mother was Japanese. Career In the 1960s, Matsuzaka became a child actress. Matsuzaka grew into adulthood in film ...

Sumako Matsui was a Japanese actress and singer. Born as Masako Kobayashi in Matsushiro, Nagano, Nagano Prefecture as the fifth daughter and last of nine children of Tohta Kobayashi, she was adopted by the Hasegawa family in Ueda at the age of six and in 1900 g ...

Ken Ogata , better known by his stage name , was a Japanese actor. Life Ogata was born in Tokyo, Japan. Ogata is well known for his roles in Peter Greenaway's '' The Pillow Book'', Paul Schrader's '' Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters'' and Shohei Imam ...

as Hiroshi Yosano *

Kimiko Ikegami is an American-born Japanese actress. She is best known for playing the lead role of Gorgeous in the 1977 film ''House''. Early life Born in Manhattan, New York City, United States to Japanese parents, she moved to Kyoto at age 3. Kimiko graduat ...

as Akiko Hatano *

Morio Kazama is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 2nd Yokohama Film Festival for '' Shiki Natsuko'' and ''Yūgure made'' and at the 6th and 7th Japan Academy Prizes. Filmography Films * '' Wanpaku Ōji no Orochi Taiji'' (19 ...

as Sakae Osugi *

Eri Ishida is a Japanese people, Japanese actress. She won the award for best supporting actress at the 9th Yokohama Film Festival for ''Chōchin (film), Chōchin'' and at the 13th Hochi Film Award for ''A Chaos of Flowers'', ''Hope and Pain'' and ''Wutheri ...

as Noe Itō *

Yūsaku Matsuda was a Japanese actor. In Japan, he was best known for roles in action films and a variety of television series in the 1970s as well as a switch to a wider range of roles in the 1980s. His final film appearance was as the villain Sato in Ridley ...

Takeo Arishima was a Japanese novelist, short-story writer and essayist during the late Meiji and Taishō periods. His two younger brothers, and , were also authors. His son was the internationally known film and stage actor, Masayuki Mori. Early life Ar ...

Yoshiko Nakada Yoshiko is a feminine Japanese given name. Possible writings The name Yoshiko can have a variety of different meanings depending on which kanji characters are used to write it. Over 200 possible variations of the name exist. Some of the most commo ...

as Tomiko Yamakawa *

Mineko Nishikawa is an actress and Enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism ...

as Takino Hayashi *

Mikio Narita was a Japanese actor. He was most famous for playing villains. He often worked with Kinji Fukasaku. Narita graduated from Haiyuza Theatre Company acting school and joined Daiei Film. His career as a screen actor started in 1963. His film debut ...

as Harufusa Hatano * Keizo Kanie as Hogetsu Shimamura *

Renji Ishibashi , born is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 15th Hochi Film Award for '' Rōnin-gai''. Filmography Film Television Video game * '' Yakuza: Dead Souls'' - Oyassan References External links * Renji Ishi ...

as Shojiro Sawada *

Takashi Naitō is a masculine Japanese given name. Possible writings The name Takashi can have multiple different meanings depending on which kanji is used to write it. Some possible writings of the name include: *江詩 - "estuary , inlet, poem" *隆 - "prospe ...

as Kyutaro Wada *

Eri Saito Eri may refer to: People * Eri (biblical figure) * Eri (given name), a Japanese feminine given name, including lists of people and fictional characters * Eri (king), the progenitor of the Umu-Eri and Umu-Nri-Igbo ancient Nigerian city-states * ...

as Natsuko Fukao *Jack Atkinson as Fahv *

Miki Sanjo Miki may refer to: Places *Miki, Hyōgo, a city in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Kagawa, a town in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan *Miki, Azerbaijan, a village in Astara Rayon, Azerbaijan People *Miki (given name) *Miki (surname) *Miki Núñez (born ...

as Arishima's mother

External links

* Films directed by Kinji Fukasaku 1988 films Biographical films about poets Adultery in films Films about earthquakes Films about suicide Films based on Japanese novels Films set in 1901 Films set in 1904 Films set in 1923 Films set in Hokkaido Films set in Kyoto Films set in Liaoning Films set in Tokyo Toei Company films Films set in the Taishō period 1980s Japanese films {{1980s-Japan-film-stub