A haunting tale of unrequited love, The Affair at Akitsu is one of the most beloved Japanese melodramas of the postwar studio era. Yoshida’s first adapted screenplay uses the vivid background of war-torn Japan to suggest its archetypal characters of the spirited, selfless woman – mesmerizingly embodied by Mariko Okada – and the cynical intellectual drawn to her beauty as twin figures for the hope and resignation simultaneously born of Japan’s inevitable defeat. A deeply affecting and exquisitely beautiful film, Yoshida and Okada’s first collaboration announced the abiding interest in resilient heroines and pointedly feminist ideas that would remain a constant across the many films made throughout their long partnership.