Keisuke Kinoshita's Snow Flurry embodies that special brand of sublime, wistful melancholy so prevalent among Japanese dramas of the 1950s. The film is centered around a failed suicide pact between two lovers--a pact which failed because the pregnant woman survived. Even worse: the man who didn't make it was the son to a prominent, rich family. Not wishing to encourage gossip, the prominent, rich family adopts their son's lover and her male child. But their lives are made a living hell, particularly the new son who is cruelly given a name which approximates to "abandoned child." The film should be largely applauded for its wide-screen cinematography--count the number of times characters run across a bridge or road that stretches from one side of the frame to the other--and its daring narrative structure. Eschewing linearity, Kinoshita hits the audience with seemingly random moments and events which he periodically revisits over and over again, each time providing more and more context to their importance. Snow Flurry is a very sad, very beautiful film. The problem is that I've seen plenty of other Japanese films just like it.
7/10
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