A Distant Cry from Spring

On a dairy farm in Hokkaido a widow lives with her small son. The work is hard, the winters long, and there are people who want the land. One night a man comes to the door; he asks to shelter from the rain, then stays and starts working. He says nothing about his past. Something forms between him and the woman, and the boy grows attached to him too. Yoji Yamada wrote and directed the film, which was built openly as a tribute to Shane: a stranger arrives, stays, sets things right and leaves. Ken Takakura plays the man and Chieko Baisho the woman. It is the last part of the trilogy Yamada made with Baisho. The telling does not go in for big speeches; the milking, the harvest, the snow and the silence carry the story. The strength of the film is in what is not said.