A Dedicated Life

Master documentary filmmaker Kazuo Hara -- who gained international acclaim with his harrowing, compelling work Yuki Yukite Shingun -- directs this portrait of noted writer and literary figure Mitsuharu Inoue.

Born in 1926 on the southern island of Kyushu, Inoue was a member of the Japanese Communist party while his book Chi no Mure was nominated for the highest literary prize in Japan. He was also a maddeningly complex person. On the one hand, he was revered by students and colleagues alike; on the other, he was an unrepentant womanizer and a bald-faced liar.

While Hara catches him in a number of lies -- including one memorable story about his first love, a Korean lass who turned into a prostitute -- he never loses sympathy with his subject. As the film progresses, Inoue learns that he has terminal liver cancer.