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Movie
Poster for The Long Darkness

The Long Darkness

1972 · 121 min

A quiet, heavy story of young love weighed down by family shame and poverty. It feels like watching two people try to hold onto hope when everything else is pulling them under—beautiful but very sad, with the steady rhythm of a long train journey.

Overview
The relationship between Tetsuro, a university student from a disgraced, burdened family, and Shino, a waitress supporting her impoverished relatives. The couple decides to marry despite the significant emotional and social hardships each faces, viewing their love as a means to overcome the shame and despair inherited from their pasts.

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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
  • bleakstrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 2 of 3
  • romanticstrength 1 of 3
Pacing
slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • family
  • love
  • isolation
  • class
  • guilt
Places
  • big city
  • home
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
None
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action0
Horror0
Humour1
Realism8
Romance6
Tension3
Darkness7
Complexity5
Emotional weight8

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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, romance
Directed by
Kei Kumai
Written by
Keiji Hasebe, Kei Kumai
Starring
Komaki Kurihara, Gō Katō, Yasushi Nagata, Hisako Takihana, Kinzō Shin, Kaneko Iwasaki, Kayoko Onishi, Hisashi Igawa
Music
Teizō Matsumura
Cinematography
Kiyomi Kuroda
Runtime
121 min
Country
Japan
Languages
Japanese

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