Love Under the Crucifix (1962) - Kinuyo Tanaka

Set in feudal Japan, Kinuyo Tanaka's Love under the Crucifix transverses the forbidden love archetype through the lens of feminism, delivering a powerful and tragic story of individual liberty, love, and choice under the oppressive forces of the time period, where woman were ornamental in nature, prizes for men whom have reached a certain status or power in society.  The story of Ogin, the daughter of a tea master, who falls in love with Ukon, a feudal prince, who happens to be a married Christian man, Love under the Crucifix's narrative thrust follows this perilous relationship, one that faces barriers not only due to puritanical decrees related to marriage, but governmental oppression taking place after the Shogun bans Christianity entirely from the region.  While the story is centered around this forbidden love, Love under the Crucifix is first and foremost a story of one woman's struggle for empowerment, following a character in Ogin who pins for the ability to have power over her own agency, a character whose female form has left her at a major disadvantage in life, one that leaves her with no liberty or freedom to carve her own path.  Ogin is a character who is longing for this love she cannot have, and throughout much of the film's running time she is in a state of isolation emotionally, unsure of where Ukon's emotions are placed while lacking the agency as a female to find out for herself.  By the finale of Love under the Crucifix it becomes apparent that Ogin's only sense of empowerment will come in death, as the state omnipresent, coercive nature has her reveal this hidden love against her will in an attempt to grow its power and authority.  Ogin as a character comes to realize that in death she will have been granted choice, with this extreme act being one of empowerment, as she is  unwilling to be ornamental,  only interested in being free to choose to devote her soul to the man she loves, free from the power structures which force her femininity into specific, authority-approved spaces.  A tragic love story swelling with femininity and humanism, Love under the Crucifix is a compelling film which bravely and effectively finds the honor in death, asserting that dying proudly on one's own terms, under certain circumstances, can be just as honorable as living.