The Heart (1973 film)

The Heart (心, Kokoro), also titled Love Betrayed, is a 1973 Japanese drama film written and directed by Kaneto Shindō.

It is based on the 1914 novel Kokoro by Natsume Sōseki.

[1][2][3] Sōseki's novel has been adapted for film and television numerous times, the first time for cinema by Kon Ichikawa in 1955 as The Heart.

For his version, writer/director Shindō moved the story's Meiji era setting to the 1970s[4] and put his focus only on the novel's third and final part, "Sensei to isho" ("Sensei's testament").

[5] While Louis Frédéric ranked The Heart among Shindō's important films,[6] Max Tessier criticised Shindō's "leaden directing" and "heavy-handed psychology".