Lost Lovers

Lost Lovers

1971. Japan. Directed by Soichiro Tahara, Kunio Shimizu. Screenplay by Shimizu. With Renji Ishibashi, Kaori Momoi, Tenmei Kano. In their feature debut, Lost Lovers, television documentarian Tahara and avant-garde playwright Shimizu offer an energetic portrait of Japanese youth after the failed student protests of the 1960s. While on a trip to northern Japan, a former pole-vault champion befriends a young deaf couple and learns a way of communicating beyond words. Actress Momoi makes her impressive debut as a liberated female character that at the time seemed refreshingly new for Japanese cinema. Print lent by The Japan Foundation; courtesy Toho Distribution. In Japanese; English subtitles. 122 min.