A story of Japanese writer Kafu Nagai (1879-1959), a man about sixty with a huge reputation of seducer who falls madly in love for a young geisha named Oyuki. Meticulous and smartly dressed, Nagai patiently wrote in his diary his thoughts during many years. A melancholy reflection on the passage of time and a brilliant interpretive exercise.
A late film from Kaneto Shindo, he was 80 when he made this, and there is little to link with his earlier, classic, Onibaba, except perhaps that it is the ladies who are always so busy. There is also a wonderful scene where a trio of gents have gathered to naked naughty pictures and whilst the gorgeous Yuki Sumida is quite naked, there are fully dressed and wearing decorative and rather spooky masks. It is a bitter sweet tale of an older writer and his flings with ladies of the night, culminating with a more regular relationship with the aforementioned Ms Sumida. Very well told with lots of Tokyo period detail and very much skin. Frequent and graceful are the sexual bouts ensure there is never a dull moment and a colourful and thoughtful story excellently portrayed by Shindo.