In the stillness of a sacred temple, one young man’s yearning for purity becomes a descent into darkness.

In postwar Kyoto, MIZOGUCHI Goichi (ICHIKAWA Raizo VIII), a troubled and stuttering youth, arrives at Shukaku Temple seeking solace and spiritual purpose as an apprentice monk, hoping one day to succeed as head priest. Having been raised himself in a temple and inspired by his father’s stories of Shukaku Temple’s divine beauty, Goichi is enchanted by its serene perfection yet tormented by memories of his mother’s adultery and his father’s death.

As the world around the temple begins to intrude — tainted by vanity, lust, and hypocrisy — his ideal of pure beauty twists into something darker. The head priest, TAYAMA Dosen (NAKAMURA Ganjiro II), a friend of Goichi’s father, keeps a geisha mistress, and with the monks profiting from tourism while indulging in worldly pleasures, Goichi’s disillusionment deepens. He becomes increasingly unmoored from reality.

Ostracised for his speech disorder and manipulated by a cynical friend (NAKADAI Tatsuya), Goichi’s remaining faith in humanity and religion completely disintegrates. What begins as reverence curdles into obsession. Convinced that the only way to preserve the temple’s purity is through its destruction, he makes a decision from which there is no return: to set it ablaze.

Inspired by true events and MISHIMA Yukio’s novel The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, this haunting psychological drama examines the fragile boundary between reverence and fanaticism, revealing the turbulent inner conflicts at the heart of the human condition. Director ICHIKAWA Kon (The Inugami Family, JFTFP25; Ten Dark Women, JFTFP20) presents the story in a dreamlike, fragmented style that mirrors Goichi’s mental descent. 4K digital remastered film.

Contains abusive language and references to suicide.

Photo Credit: © 1958 Kadokawa Pictures

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Director ICHIKAWA Kon
Year 1958
Duration 1h 39m
Language Japanese with English Subtitles
Cast ICHIKAWA Raizo VIII, NAKAMURA Ganjiro II, NAKADAI Tatsuya