Nagisa ¿shima

In a Japanese prison camp on Java in 1942, two British officers, John Lawrence and Jack Celliers, encounter camp commander Yonoi and his sergeant Hara. Things had been going pretty well, until charismatic, rebellious Celliers arrived. Yonoi is a devotee of the samurai ideal; neither he nor Hara can understand the stoic way in which the British prisoners accept their situation of defeat. Lawrence speaks Japanese, and ceaselessly tries to mediate between...

1895, Japan. In a small village, Seki is the wife of the litter carrier Gisaburo. Seki has an affair with Toyiji, a man twenty-six years younger her. Toyiji becomes jealous of Gisaburo and plots with Seki to kill him. After Gisaburo has had plenty of sake to drink and goes to bed, the two strangle Gisaburo and dump his body inside a well in the woods. Seki tells the locals that Gisaburo moved to Tokyo to work. Finally, three years later, suspicions...