Ikuji Hirao

The Wild Geese

A young woman, who must support her father as a middle-aged man's mistress, finds herself falling in love with a student closer to her age.

A Ripple in a Morning

Atsuko is an office secretary who is also her family's primary source of income and caretaker in postwar Japan.

Dispersed Clouds

Five women classmates from a college in Tokyo are on the first stretch of a walking tour when one of them, Masako, falls ill at a railway station. Osen, a middle-aged maid from a nearby inn, takes her in and nurses her, assisted by Dr. Minami, a young physician who diagnoses her illness as a mild case of pneumonia. With Masako in good hands and needing a few days to recuperate, her classmates continue their tour. Masako’s recovery, however, is hampered by her spoiled and immature nature and her determination to punish the world for the loss of her mother.