Early Spring (1956) DVD CRITERION

Shoji and Masako Sugiyama are a young middle class couple living in the suburbs of Tokyo. Due largely to the monotony of their day to day existence, they have a somewhat emotionless marriage as they spend their days away from each other, Shoji regularly commuting with a group of other similarly aged neighbors into the city where they all work white collar office jobs and they who socialize together during their time off, while Masako stays at home tending to her domestic duties, she having a variety of visitors to keep her company including her mother. The problems in their relationship were arguably exacerbated by the death of their only child following an illness. Within this situation, Shoji falls into an affair with one of his fellow commuters, a young woman nicknamed Goldfish. Due to certain signs, Masako suspects Shoji of some sort of marital impropriety. What happens between them is affected by the serious illness of one of their similarly aged friends, the commuter friends also suspecting that there is something going on between Shoji and Goldfish which they believe is wrong no matter how or why it happened, and whether Shoji and Masako themselves believe their marriage is worth saving as an opportunity of sorts presents itself to allow them to start their married life over again.