Love Under the Crucifix

Tanaka’s sixth and final film as director casts Ineko Arima (co-star with Tanaka of Ozu’s Equinox Flower) as the daughter of a legendary tea master who falls in love with Tatsuya Nakadai’s married Christian samurai. Flamboyant and feminist, the film uses the ritual of the ancient tea ceremony as a metaphor for the stifling strictures of contemporary Japanese society. Kelley Dong calls it Tanaka’s “most erotic film” and “the natural culmination of [her] vested interest in a woman’s right to refuse”. The real-life 16th century samurai who serves as the basis for Nakadai’s character was beatified by Pope Francis in 2017.