Farewell To The Summer Light (1968) is the final "anti-melodrama" from Japanese New Wave director Yoshishige Yoshida. It is also his most European style film, which is not surprising-since the film was shot completely on location in Europe. I always thought that the European that he mostly resembled was Micheangelo Antonioni, but the sequences at the beginning where the two main characters Naoko (Mariko Okada) and Kawamura (Tadashi Yokouchi) face each other and away with voice narration calls to mind Lain Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad. Naoko is married to American but is having an affair with Kawamura and finally divorces to but decides to remain free rather than become Kawamura's wife. Perhaps, after six film Yoshida had less to say about a love triangle, but this feel like one of his weaker efforts. Of course the film locations and cinematography are top notch as usual, but it feels somewhat lifeless and felt much longer than the 1 hour 38 minute run time.
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