Undulant Fever
海を感じる時
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A schoolgirl offers her body to a boy who says he doesn't love her — Nakazawa Kei's 1978 novel of stubborn desire.
In a seaside town in the 1970s, Emiko, a high-school student, has long been in love with Hiroshi, an older boy on the school newspaper. One day in the club room he kisses her, just to find out what it is like. When she tells him how she feels, he says he was only curious about a woman's body and anyone would have done. She will not give him up. They begin sleeping together, and he treats her with open coldness: he despises himself for wanting her without loving her, and tells her again and again he cannot care for her as she wants. She says she does not mind, as long as she can see him. She becomes pregnant and wants the child; Hiroshi says he will pay, nothing more, and the baby is never born.
Hiroshi leaves for university in Tokyo and sends her letters back. Her mother, a widow who has raised Emiko alone by sewing, reads them and finds her daughter begging him to see her, even if only for her body. She calls Emiko a whore and hits her; Emiko answers that she is a woman too. Her mother sinks into despair. Emiko fails her university exams, leaves home and follows Hiroshi to Tokyo, where she works in a flower shop and lives alone, and he drops in when he pleases. He grows kinder. When her mother visits and Hiroshi turns up, the mother behaves as if he is not there. After a furious row he holds Emiko and asks her to live with him.
But a meeting with his sister, who knows he once said he never really liked Emiko, brings the past back, and Emiko cannot forgive the years when he took her without loving her. Drunk one night, she goes home with a stranger. A few days later, while Hiroshi happily eats the dinner she has cooked, she tells him. He leaves in a rage.
Emiko goes back to the house by the sea. Her mother has taken a job as a live-in matron at a company dormitory, and the house is empty. Alone, Emiko remembers being a child there. In the morning she walks out onto the beach and stands looking at the sea.
Starring
Yui Ichikawaas Emiko
A high-school girl in a seaside town who clings to an older boy even after he tells her he does not love her.
Emiko’s story
When Hiroshi kisses her to see what it is like, Emiko tells him she loves him; he says anyone would have done. She keeps after him, glad to be wanted on any terms. She becomes pregnant and wants the child; he offers only money, and the baby is never born. Her mother reads the letters Hiroshi sends back from Tokyo, calls her a whore and hits her; Emiko answers that she is a woman too. She follows him to Tokyo and works in a flower shop. He grows kinder and asks her to live with him, but she cannot forgive the years he took her without loving her. She goes home with a stranger and tells Hiroshi, who leaves in a rage. Home in the empty house by the sea, she stands on the beach in the morning, looking out.
Sosuke Ikematsuas Hiroshi
An older student on the school paper who wants Emiko's body but not her, and despises himself for it.
Hiroshi’s story
Hiroshi kisses Emiko to find out what it is like, then tells her anyone would have done. He goes on sleeping with her, disgusted with himself for wanting her without loving her, and tells her again and again that he cannot care for her as she wants. When she is pregnant, he says he will pay and nothing more. At university in Tokyo he sends back her letters. When she follows him, he drops in on her as he pleases, but grows kinder; after her mother ignores him at the door and they have a furious row, he holds Emiko and asks her to live with him. Days later, as he happily eats a dinner she has cooked, Emiko tells him she has slept with a stranger. At first he does not believe her. Then he leaves in a rage.
Kumi Nakamuraas Emiko's mother
A widow who has raised Emiko alone by sewing, and is devastated to learn of her daughter's affair.
Madoka Sakaias Tokiko
Emiko's co-worker at the flower shop, who calls her "big sister" and is troubled by her relationship with a man old enough to be her father.
Sakiko Takaoas Hiroshi's sister
Hiroshi's older sister, who has heard him say he does not particularly like Emiko and lets a careless remark slip when they meet.
Masaki Miuraas Man in a suit
A man in office clothes who approaches Emiko one night when she is drunk and alone; she goes home with him.
Why it matters
Undulant Fever comes from Kei Nakazawa's first novel, written when she was an eighteen-year-old university student; it won the Gunzo New Writers' Prize in 1978 and caused a stir for its frank account of a schoolgirl's sexual experience with an older boy. The film keeps that uncomfortable honesty. Emiko is less seduced than determined, choosing to be wanted on the worst terms rather than not at all, and neither the boy who admits he does not love her nor the mother who can see only shame has any language for what she wants. It asks what a girl learns about desire when the only words on offer are use and disgrace, and it ends not in reconciliation but with a young woman alone in front of the sea, beginning, perhaps, to want something for herself.