The Kiss (Seppun)
接吻
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A lonely office worker falls for a murderer she sees on TV and marries him in prison.
Kyoko Endo is twenty-eight, single and alone. Colleagues leave their overtime to her, and she does it without complaint. One evening, washing up with the television on, she sees the arrest of Akio Sakaguchi, who broke into the home of a family he had never met, killed all three of them and then announced himself to the police and the press. On the news he is smiling. Kyoko recognises something in that silent smile, and from that night she writes down everything she can learn about him.
Sakaguchi says nothing to the court or to his court-appointed lawyer, Yukihide Hasegawa. Kyoko watches him from the first day of the trial and asks Hasegawa to take him gifts. Hasegawa, drawn to her, warns her not to get too close, but she and Sakaguchi begin to exchange letters. With Hasegawa she visits Sakaguchi's older brother in Gunma and hears how he grew up. Then she meets Sakaguchi through the glass of the visiting room. She leaves her job and, against Hasegawa's advice, marries Sakaguchi in prison. When reporters crowd around her, she smiles into their cameras as he once did.
Sakaguchi is sentenced to death. Hasegawa announces at a press conference that Sakaguchi is appealing, and Kyoko, learning it from the television, is furious. She asks to meet her husband in a room without the glass, and on the way hands Hasegawa a present to carry. In the room she gives Sakaguchi a birthday cake. As he blows out the candles, she takes the present from Hasegawa's bag. It is a knife. She embraces Sakaguchi and stabs him in the chest, and he dies. She turns on Hasegawa, then suddenly kisses him instead. As the guards drag her away, he shouts that he will defend her. She tells him to leave her alone.
Starring
Eiko Koikeas Kyoko Endo
A lonely 28-year-old office worker who falls for a killer she sees on the news and marries him in prison.
Kyoko Endo’s story
Kyoko does the overtime her colleagues leave her and has little to do with her family. In a killer's silent smile on the evening news she sees someone of her own kind, and from that night she fills notebooks with everything written about him. She watches the trial from the public gallery, persuades Hasegawa to carry her gifts, writes to Sakaguchi and, after hearing from his brother how he grew up, meets him through the glass. She tells Hasegawa she is happy now, free of wondering what she lives for. She quits her job, marries Sakaguchi in prison and smiles into the reporters' cameras as he once did. When she learns from the television that he is appealing, she is furious. On his birthday she stabs him to death, kisses Hasegawa, and refuses his offer to defend her.
Etsushi Toyokawaas Akio Sakaguchi
A man who killed a family of strangers, gave himself up, and keeps his silence through his trial.
Akio Sakaguchi’s story
After killing a family of strangers, Sakaguchi calls the police and the press himself and smiles as he is arrested. From then on he says nothing, to the detectives, the court or his lawyer. Kyoko's gifts and letters reach him through Hasegawa; he writes back, lets her close through the glass of the visiting room, and marries her in prison. After he is sentenced to death, something shifts. He dreams of the family he killed, shows feeling for once, and says that he ought to be executed, and it is this that moves Hasegawa to appeal. When Kyoko rages at him over it, he does not argue. On his birthday he blows out the candles on the cake she brings him, and she stabs him as they embrace. He dies without resisting.
Toru Nakamuraas Yukihide Hasegawa
Sakaguchi's court-appointed lawyer, who warns Kyoko to keep her distance and falls for her himself.
Yukihide Hasegawa’s story
Hasegawa is defending a client who will not speak to him. He takes the woman in the public gallery for an oddity, then carries her gifts, grows drawn to her, and invites her along when he visits Sakaguchi's brother in Gunma. He tells her not to get too close and tries to stop the prison marriage, and she goes ahead anyway. When Sakaguchi at last shows remorse and says he ought to be executed, Hasegawa files the appeal at once and announces it to the press. He arranges the meeting without the glass that Kyoko asks for and carries in the present she hands him on the way, not knowing it is a knife. She kills Sakaguchi, turns on him, then kisses him; as the guards take her away, he shouts that he will defend her.
Saburo Shinodaas Tatsumi Sakaguchi
Sakaguchi's older brother in Gunma, who tells Kyoko and Hasegawa how the killer grew up.
Why it matters
The Kiss is about a woman nobody sees, who feels seen at last by a stranger on a television screen who has killed a family. The film never explains Kyoko, and it never mocks her. It takes seriously a loneliness so complete that a murderer's silence can look like kinship, and follows that feeling through the machinery of a capital case in Japan: the press conference, the glass of the visiting room, the appeal, the prison wedding. Her fury at the appeal is the hinge of the story, and what she felt betrayed by is left to the audience. Eiko Koike, setting aside her bright television image, won best actress at the Yokohama Film Festival and the Mainichi Film Awards for the role. The film leaves an uncomfortable question: how much of love is the wish to be the only one who understands.