Matsuoi and his wife Tsuya moved to Oshima City because of her unpredictable character. Even though Tsuya continues to have affairs, Matsuoi loves her and is a devoted husband. Tsuya is then diagnosed with a cancer and later goes into a coma. Matsuoi then thinks of his wife's lovers. Matsui goes to those men and informs them of Tatsuya's condition. The other women in the lives of those men are shocked and begin to re-examine their views of their men.
Acting
Hiroshi Abe's face contains multitudes—stoic, shattered, weirdly hopeful.
Direction
Yukisada lets silences scream louder than any confrontation could.
Director
Isao Yukisada
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on a novel by Shuichi Yoshida, whose work often explores the gulf between public respectability and private chaos in Japanese society. The film quietly interrogates the 'devoted wife' archetype by making her absence the catalyst.
The 138-minute runtime deliberately mirrors the limbo of waiting—Yukisada refuses to let you escape Matsuoi's circular grief. The lovers become stand-ins for conversations Tsuya and Matsuoi never had.
JP
