Akitsu Springs is a tragic love story directed by Yoshishige Yoshida, later to become famous for his innovations in the field of Japanese New Wave, and stars his future wife Mariko Okada in her apparently 100th film. She also designed the costumes for the movie. Her performance is pretty much the best one in the film, and serves as a nice contrast to later Yoshida films where she played emotionally distant characters, whereas here she's more down to earth.
The film is pretty disappointing because Yoshida's personal touch is barely felt, and it's really too conventional and predictable compared to some of his other works. The story is quite boring and too long, not to mention the passage of time is never felt as it should be. In terms of plot, I find Akitsu Springs to be very mediocre.
The other flaw is the music, which is overabundant and plays constantly while the characters are talking, or during the scenes which would be better off silent (this is especially obvious in the beginning), plus it isn't all that memorable either. Just a typical melodramatic orchestral soundtrack.
The best thing is the cinematography. Some ways in which Yoshida places the characters within shots or composes the shot elements are reminiscent of his more mature works, and the wide shots of nature are beautiful to look at. However, the scenes taking place indoors or during the night are too dimly lit, which may or may not be due to the print quality, but other than that, it's a lovely looking film with lots of memorable colors.
The film is pretty disappointing because Yoshida's personal touch is barely felt, and it's really too conventional and predictable compared to some of his other works. The story is quite boring and too long, not to mention the passage of time is never felt as it should be. In terms of plot, I find Akitsu Springs to be very mediocre.
The other flaw is the music, which is overabundant and plays constantly while the characters are talking, or during the scenes which would be better off silent (this is especially obvious in the beginning), plus it isn't all that memorable either. Just a typical melodramatic orchestral soundtrack.
The best thing is the cinematography. Some ways in which Yoshida places the characters within shots or composes the shot elements are reminiscent of his more mature works, and the wide shots of nature are beautiful to look at. However, the scenes taking place indoors or during the night are too dimly lit, which may or may not be due to the print quality, but other than that, it's a lovely looking film with lots of memorable colors.