And Then

Morita’s award-winning first foray into period films is an adaptation of master of literary modernism Sōseki Natsume’s novel of the same title, about an idle upper-class man (Yūsaku Matsuda) filling his days of ennui with literature and art. When his wealthy and traditional family tells him it’s time to grow up and settle into the proper life for which he was bred, he regrets having let go of his one true love, who unhappily married his best friend. This second and final collaboration with the iconic Matsuda (The Family Game) is perhaps Morita’s most ambitious work with elaborate sets built by a veteran crew and animated by its actors, including Chishū Ryū of Ozu fame. Morita creates a highly stylized Meiji-period Japan imbued with a sense of melancholy and nostalgia for time past and love lost.