悲愁物語

this was an awesome shot/scene. i couldn't find more pics from the scenes i loved, and i don't have screenshot taking capabilities

Story of Sorrow and Sadness was released by Cinema Epoch as "Tale of Sorrow", but I like "Story of Sorrow and Sadness" better...has a better ring to it and is a more accurate translation (as far as I can tell).  I may as well call it by whatever name I like, because their subtitles were pretty bad (sorry guys).

The opening credits are really great with just the shots of various interesting golf clubs and the cool old song. I wish I knew what song it was!  I also wish I could find a video of the opening online.  Oh well!  I need help with being able to make videos & screenshots...someday I'll work on that.

The film follows golfer and up & coming celebrity Reiko Sakuraba.  She's embroiled in some kind of golf rigging scandal...the explanation of the golf stuff wasn't very clear... Actually, the beginning of the movie was all boring golf stuff and I was kind of worried, but then the film got to the heart of its true subject--celebrity obsession and ruin.  A neighbor of Reiko's gets obsessed with and blackmails her, and that (along with the golf stuff) prove to be Reiko's ruin.  The film examines what makes and breaks a celebrity and why people are obsessed with celebrities but simultaneously anticipate their ruin.

The nail polish colors were an interesting theme.

This was a very unique Suzuki film because it was made in the 70s.  It isn't like his 60s yakuza flicks...the atmosphere is totally different.  It was just a contemporary movie about contemporary subject matter.  His films after this were period pieces, so this was really interesting and unique.  It was a lot less surreal than his other works as well.  I loved the ending.

^ as far as I know, anyway

PS: the spellcheck on here is pretty terrible