The spirit of Alain Resnais runs deep in this existential melodrama. Ayako, a young woman on a mountaineering holiday, is accused of murdering her husband. When disaster strikes on the mountain, Ayako is connected by a safety rope to both her brutalising spouse and her secret lover. To prevent all three from plunging to their deaths, she is forced to choose between cutting her husband’s rope or that of her lover. An elliptical narrative, filmed in Masumura’s trademark ‘Scope, explores dark themes of gender, guilt and voyeurism in a film of blistering intensity.