Appassionata
This story is based on the novel "Jo no mai" by Tomiko Miyao which is based on the life of painter Shōen Uemura (1875–1949), the first woman to be awarded the Order of Culture. The title refers to the masterpiece bijinga ("picture of a beautiful woman") that Uemura painted at the age of 61. The main character, Tsuya Shimamura, is born in Kyoto as the second daughter of a tea trader who dies before her birth. Tsuya, who loves painting more than anything and is hopeless at housework, attends art school and at age 15 receives the name Shōsui (from the characters for "pine" and "green") from her teacher. The crown prince of England purchases one of her works, propelling her to fame overnight. The novel portrays the remainder of her stormy life, during which she is impregnated by her teacher and raises a fatherless child; through it all she devotes herself to her painting, undaunted.
Release Date
January 14, 1984Runtime
145 minGenres
DramaDirected by
Akira Shimizu, Sadao NakajimaScreenplay by
Hiro MatsudaLanguage
JapaneseBudget
$0Revenue
$0Status
ReleasedCast
Yûko Natori
Tsuya ShimamuraMorio Kazama
Kunihiko Mitamura
Aki Mizusawa
Shima ShimamuraMariko Okada
Sei ShimamuraMieko Takamine
Yoshiko Mita
Ayako Kobayashi
Sei as a girlShirō Ōsaka
Kōjirō Kusanagi
Sei's uncleKin Sugai
Junkichi Orimoto
Tomiko Ishii
MidwifeEizô Kitamura
Takashi Ebata
Takashi Noguchi
Ryoichi Kusanagi
Masaharu Arikawa
Yoshihiro Igarashi
Tsuyako Okajima
Mieko Hoshino
Neighborhood ladyKatsuko Ōkawa
Momiji Yamamura
Michihiro Kinoshita
Rickshaw manEtsuko Ichihara
Narrator (voice)Mikio Narita
Kei Satō