The lives of Japanese literati in the early 20th century were as full of drama and tragedy as any of their novels and poems, which frequently drew inspiration directly from their own experiences.
The latest film to make this point is Kichitaro Negishi’s verbally florid and decidedly old-school “Yasuko, Songs of Days Past,” which depicts the real-life love triangle between actor Yasuko Hasegawa (Suzu Hirose), poet Chuya Nakahara (Taisei Kido) and literary critic Hideo Kobayashi (Masaki Okada) in the Taisho Era (1912-26).
Scripted by Yozo Tanaka, who worked with Negishi on his film “Villon’s Wife” (2009), the film has the flavor of bygone days in everything from its literary-sounding dialogue to its confluence of bohemian attitudes about sex and conventional gender roles.
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