After the banquet

Kadzu, an aging, luxurious, independent, and straightforward restaurant owner frequented by conservative politicians, falls in love with the aging former diplomat Noguti, a refined supporter of reforms, and becomes his wife. What could possibly go wrong? Well, if the former diplomat returns to politics, heeding the calls of a not-so-popular party, then just about everything. The confusion between means and moral purity, loyalty to her husband versus loyalty to principles - when politics turns personal, the family becomes a battlefield, love risks becoming a victim, and the threat of losing independence may be scarier than the looming loneliness. Yukio Mishima (1925-1970) - a star of 20th-century literature, the most widely read Japanese author in the world, possessed brilliant talent, renowned for his works spanning a wide range and variety of genres (novels, plays, short stories, essays), as well as his staggering biography (obsession with bodybuilding, extreme right-wing political views, ritual suicide after a failed attempt at a monarchist coup). In "After the Banquet" (1960), Mishima aimed to show how love evolves, transforms, distorts, and is undermined by politics, causing a major scandal in Japanese political and social circles. Former Foreign Minister Hatiro Arita, who saw himself in Noguti, sued Mishima for violating his right to privacy, and this case - the first in Japan concerning writers' freedom of speech - Mishima lost, which, according to some critics, killed off contemporary Japanese satire as a genre. Available in Russian for the first time!