Plot
The film starts on a typical working day in metropolitan Tokyo: office worker Shoji Sugiyama (Ryō Ikebe) wakes up to prepare to commute to work, attended to by his wife, Masako (Chikage Awashima). The couple is childless but used to have a young son who died years ago of an illness.
During a hiking trip with friends, Shoji spends moments alone on a hitchhiked lorry with a fellow worker, typist Kaneko (Keiko Kishi), nicknamed "Goldfish" for her large eyes. After the trip Kaneko makes advances to Shoji. The two have an affair. Masako suspects something is amiss behind her back but says nothing, even when Shoji spends extra time with Kaneko, his war comrades and a dying friend. The two become progressively estranged.
The friends, too, suspect something is going on between Shoji and Kaneko and finally confront Kaneko during a gathering, advising her not to come between a married couple. Aggrieved, Kaneko goes to visit Shoji late in the night. The affair finally is disclosed, and Masako and Shoji have a falling-out. Masako is angry enough with Shoji to leave for her mother's home the next morning.
Shoji accepts a job to go to Mitsuishi, in Okayama Prefecture, an out-of-the-way provincial town. Kaneko is upset that he is leaving but later accepts it. Meanwhile, Shoji begins to regret his affair and tries to bring his wife home, but Masako only goes back after he has left for Mitsuishi. The couple meet at Mitsuishi, where they promise to forget everything before and strive for marital happiness.
Read more about this topic: Early Spring
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“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
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