Quiet passions erupt from within in Naruse’s late period masterpiece, a sumptuous melodrama of undulating and repressed feeling, set as the postwar dispersal of modernization stretches beyond Tokyo. Widow Reiko (Takamine) runs her in-law’s produce store, having rebuilt it herself in the 18 years since his passing, but faces a sudden outburst of new pressures: a push to remarry, fierce competition from a newly-minted supermarket and a love confession from her dead husband’s much younger brother Koji (Yuzo Kayama). Scripted by Takamine’s husband Zenzo Matsuyama, YEARNING finds devastating power in its tragic underpinnings as Takamine’s expressions—noted by even the faint glimmer of her eyes—convey multitudes—desire, melancholy and, as the film’s Japanese original title suggests, a swell of confusion in the wake of newfound longing.