February 19, 1970

Eternal Heart (1929) ***


Very different from other Hiroshi Shimizu's films, something of a wild and ambitious exercise in style, with many visually striking sequences and innovative images. Narratively, however, it's a rather conventional effort, like almost all of his silent films. The script by Tokusaburo Murakami, based on a story by Kan Kikuchi (who also wrote Kenji Mizoguchi's "Miyamoto Musashi" and Teinosuke Kinugasa's "Gate Of Hell").