izu dancer

A Review on the novel(in Chinese)

After random googling, should I say my suspision was confirmed - the 20 year old male student depicted in Izu Dancer is indeed an uncanny projection of the author himself. Kawabata had a rather tragic childhood. His parents and later his sister & grandma died when he was three and he had to live with his blind & deaf grandpa. Being a lonely person at heart, the sixteen year old Kawabata wrote in his diary which became a collected work later, 'I'm the only one left among this whole wide world.'

He went on a trip to Izu promenade alone and there he met a young female artist whom he befriended. She told him he was a nice person. Whether he was surprised, touched or feeling grateful, we didn't know. That expereince however molded into the masterpiece we see now - the Izu Dancer, a image-perfect portrayal of blossoming youth and love, subtle and painful.

The movie is a faithful adaptation from the writing. There're simply so many details and layers you can pick up that you never feel bored even if it was filmed in the 70s and a rather simple story of a high school student travelling with a group of performing artists.



The golden couple on screen and in real life - Momoe Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura.

more to come...