MOVIE REVIEW : ‘SPRING BELL’ TOLLS A CHANGE IN RELATIONSHIP

“Spring Bell” (Friday at the Kokusai) is a traditional woman’s picture with a contemporary sensibility.

What’s old fashioned is its slow pace, the emphasis on its leading lady’s elegant wardrobe and its extensive travelogue-like footage of the beautiful ancient capital of Nara. What’s new is writer Koji Takada’s portrait of a husband (Kinya Kitaoji) who at last considers forgiving his wife (Yoshiko Mita) for her infidelity, a fairly radical notion in Japanese movies.

It’s the old story of the husband caught up in his career and the wife unwilling to follow him to a new location. While Kitaoji is achieving acclaim as the curator of a Nara museum of ancient Oriental pottery, Mita would rather stay in Tokyo with the kids and let her husband commute. Feeling bored and neglected, the gorgeous, tremendously sexy Mita starts playing around; meanwhile, back in Nara, Kitaoji acquires a doll-like assistant (Yuko Kotegawa) so worshipful and devoted that she actually calls him sensei (master).

“Spring Bell,” which takes its title from an ancient temple bell in Nara that tolls at a crucial, symbolic moment in the story, evolves on two levels. On the one hand, there’s Mita’s desperate attempt to get her husband back once she discovers how much she loves him. On the other, there’s Kotegawa’s determination in liberating herself, refusing to return to her ex-husband after her mother-in-law has cast her out. Eventually, she must also take an objective look at her new role as Kitaoji’s mistress.

The world of “Spring Bell” is still very much a man’s world, but one that is clearly changing. Koreyoshi Kurahara’s pacing may be too leisurely, but he is nevertheless a splendid director of actors, especially women. Both Mita and Kotegawa run a gamut of emotions unfalteringly; as a sleek, polished intellectual Kitaoji is every bit as convincing as he was as a primitive, tragic lumberjack in the superb “Himatsuri.”

For all of its feminist sentiments, “Spring Bell” (Times-rated Mature) is too slow and too conventional in its soap opera-ish form to satisfy those unfamiliar with Japanese films. For the initiated, however, its pleasures are many. ‘SPRING BELL’

A Toho release of a Toho Eiga production. Director Koreyoshi Kurahara. Screenplay Koji Takada. Camera Akira Shiizuka. Music Yuzuru Hisaishi. Art director Yukio Higuchi. With Kinya Kitaoji, Yuko Kotegawa, Yoshiko Mita, Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida, Shinsuke Ashida, Akira Nakao, Toshihachi Fujita, Mariko Kaga. In Japanese, with English subtitles.

Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.

Times-rated: Mature.