A difficult film to review...

I posted my long review of this film on May 10 of this year and have had to revise it more than once after reading Phyllis Birnbaum's biography (cited in my review) of Yoshiko Kawashima, the historical figure whose life is the subject of this film, and then re-watching the film in order to better understand who the characters are and which ones were based on real people and which ones weren't. I believe my criticisms of the film are valid, but I wonder if I'm missing something in terms of the context the film was made in and who the film was aimed at. Maybe there are reasons certain directorial choices were made. I learned this afternoon that the novel by Lillian Lee on which this film is based has been translated into English and is available on Amazon, so I ordered it and intend to read it right away.

I would like to add that this film should be seen by anyone interested in the life of this woman or anyone interested in the larger subject of Japan-China relations in the 1920s and '30s. I would urge you also to read Ian Buruma's novel, The China Lover, the first section of which deals with this subject in some detail and is narrated in the first person by a Japanese character based, I believe, on Toru Yamaga, who was Kawashima's first love and who is replaced in this film by Masahiko Amakasu, a powerful Japanese official in China who is never even shown meeting Kawashima in Birnbaum's book. However, in Bertolucci's THE LAST EMPEROR, Kawashima is seen with him and is even in the office with him when he shoots himself after Japan's surrender.