Appassionata (1984) Plot Summary Explained

Release, runtime and language

1984 · 145 mins · Japanese

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Directed by

Sadao Nakajima

Starring

Etsuko Ichihara, Kei Satô, Mariko Okada, Junkichi Orimoto, Hiroshi Tanaka, Kin Sugai

Based on Tomiko Miyao’s novel “Jo no mai”, the film follows Tsuya Shimamura, born in Kyoto to a tea trader who dies before her birth. A gifted painter, she enters art school, receives the name Shōsui, and gains fame when the Crown Prince of England buys her work. Modeled on Shōen Uemura, the first woman awarded the Order of Culture, it depicts her turbulent life—an affair with her teacher, raising a child alone—while she stays devoted to painting, culminating in her celebrated bijinga at 61.