The direct translation of the original Japanese title is Entomological Chronicles of Japan, which more closely reflects the film’s use of a resilient woman’s struggling life journey as a metaphor for the history of 20th-century Japan. Imamura’s view is an odd combination of compassion and cool distance, underscored by the mixture of uneasy camerawork and random freeze-frame transitions. It is slow going at times and somewhat confusing because it tends to jump back and forth in time, but it is nevertheless an intriguing, albeit rough-edged, portrait of the struggles of womanhood in modern Japan. (DVD)