is a 1965 Japanese drama film directed by Masahiro Shinoda. It is based on the novel Beauty and Sadness by Nobel Prize winning writer Yasunari Kawabata.
Ageing writer à Âki travels to Kyoto to meet with former lover Otoko. Fifteen years ago, the married à Âki and the then still teenage Otoko had had an affair. Otoko became pregnant by him, attempted suicide after a miscarriage, and spent several months in a mental institution, while her mother tried to persuade à Âki to marry Otoko, but to no avail. à Âki later used the affair in a novel, typed up by his grieving wife Fumiko, who had learned of his infidelity by Otoko's mother. The novel, called "The Bitter Seventeen", turned out to be a bestseller.
Otoko, now a painter and art teacher, lives with a young woman, Keiko, who is both her pupil and life partner. Keiko, jealous that Otoko has never completely stopped loving à Âki, and obsessed with the idea to avenge her lover's suffering, spends the night with à Âki and later makes an appointment with his son Taichiro, intent on destroying the writer's family. While Otoko scolds Keiko for what she sees as mere egoism, Fumiko tells her husband that she suspects that the young woman is up to something.
After Taichiro and Keiko have spent the afternoon in a hotel, they go on a boating trip together. Later, Otoko is called up to come to the hotel, as Keiko has barely survived a boating accident, while Taichiro is still missing. Otoko, à Âki and his wife meet at the unconscious Keiko's bed, where Fumiko blames Otoko that she used Keiko to kill their son. After à Âki has taken the desperate Fumiko out of the room, Keiko opens her eyes, tears running down her cheeks.