Master
documentary filmmaker Kazuo Hara -- who gained international acclaim
with his harrowing, compelling work Yuki Yukite Shingun -- directs
this portrait of noted writer and literary figure Mitsuharu Inoue.
Born in 1926 on the southern island of Kyushu, Inoue was a member
of the Japanese Communist party while his book Chi no Mure was nominated
for the highest literary prize in Japan. He was also a maddeningly
complex person. On the one hand, he was revered by students and
colleagues alike; on the other, he was an unrepentant womanizer
and a bald-faced liar. While Hara catches him in a number of lies
-- including one memorable story about his first love, a Korean
lass who turned into a prostitute -- he never loses sympathy with
his subject. As the film progresses, Inoue learns that he has terminal
liver cancer.
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