AKA: 四季・奈津子, Shiki Natsuko, The Four Seasons of Natsuko, 四季·奈津子 | Directed by Yōichi Higashi | Country: Japan | Language: Japanese | 119 mins
Cast: : Setsuko Karasuma, Akiko Kana, Hitomi Kageyama, Mitsuko Ota , Yusuke Okada, Hirotaro Honda, Morio Kazama, Teizō Muta, Masumi Okada, Shōhei Hino, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ryuichi Tamura, Toshiya Fujita, Yoshio Shirai, Yoko Aki, Hatsuo Yamaya
Subtitles : –
Synopsis (Google Translate)
Human temperament changes as the day goes on and that cycle remains a perpetual rhythm; valleys and mountains, troughs and peaks, basins and pinnacles. People yearn for heat in winter and they are desperate for crisp cold in the summer. The process is natural. The idea to want something may bend itself into rapacious temptation, yet this is also why there are seasons. Some geographical places do not have the extremity of each one, but a change of pace is still incurred. The contradiction is humans always want what they can’t have and must discipline themselves into a life that does not form around desire. Humans can still enjoy life’s pleasures, as they are not exclusive to desire, but it is a journey all take in the pursuit of bettering the self. Such is the tragedy of Greek Myth Tantalus, forever reaching for the low-hanging fruit and never drinking from the receding water he wades in.
Additionally, the old man on the porch from It’s a Wonderful Life remains one of the greatest harbingers of truth as he watches a naïve George Bailey and Mary Hatch flirt upon the moonlit walk. “Youth is wasted on the wrong people!” Yes. The derivative of Four Seasons: Natsuko is the paradox of wisdom and age, seen through the eyes of a beautiful woman, who decides to suddenly change the stable things in her life for potential fame and lust. Higashi’s direction is patient and chaste, counterintuitive to the nude imagery and desires of Setsuko Karasuma’s character. Natsuko’s seemingly average predicament is a classic Tantalean punishment, not realizing the good things she has while permitting herself to not enjoy them. That strange tagline from modern society “Do what you want and find yourself” rears its ugly head once again, informing people that the lives they live are not inherently fascinating by what one makes of it. They absolutely are. This is not putting a limit on capabilities, but ensuring that the battle with nature is one where humans constantly remain vigilante, making parries and taking fewer blows in a fallen world. Review by Ziglet_mir
