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Movie
Poster for The Temple of Wild Geese

The Temple of Wild Geese

1962 · 98 min

A hushed, dreamlike descent into desire and moral decay, unfolding slowly like a memory you cannot quite shake.

Overview
Satoko is a mistress by trade or fate: when her master, the silkscreen artist of the Kohoan Temple in Kyoto, dies, she is given to the temple's lascivious head priest Kikuchi. She is drawn to a melancholy young acolyte, Jinen, who has observed the profligacy of his cruel master and Satoko's utter dependence on the man. Jinen is both fascinated and disturbed by Satoko's interest in him; he is similarly caught between loathing of Kikuchi and of the dark circumstances of his birth and his own moral weakness. The story unfolds in a dreamlike manner—a flashback inspired by a now-infamous image on a silkscreen in the souvenir shop at the so-called Temple of the Wild Geese.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 3 of 3
  • darkstrength 2 of 3
  • eeriestrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • obsession
  • isolation
  • power
  • morality
  • identity
Places
  • single country house
  • small town
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex strong
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action1
Horror2
Humour1
Realism7
Romance4
Tension5
Darkness7
Complexity7
Emotional weight7

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Where to watch in the UK

No UK streaming, rental or purchase options are known.

Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Yūzō Kawashima
Written by
Kazuo Funahashi, Yūzō Kawashima
Starring
Ayako Wakao, Masao Mishima, Isao Kimura, Kuniichi Takami, Ganjirō Nakamura II, Mineko Yorozuyo, Yoshiko Kamo, Shoichi Ozawa
Music
Sei Ikeno
Cinematography
Hiroshi Murai
Runtime
98 min
Country
Japan
Languages
Japanese

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