Story based on a classic Japanese novel but relocated to the UK for the movie. Widow Anne Osborne (Sarah Miles) lives in a beautiful ocean side town with teenage son Jonathan (Jonathan Kahn). One day a handsome young sailor (Kris Kristofferson) shows up and Anne falls in love. This causes issues with Jonathan and his band of sociopathic friends.It's well-directed with beautiful settings, a good script and good acting (especially by Miles) but it has issues. It's way too slowly-paced. It gets dull very quick and no amount of pretty scenery and good acting can liven it up. When you have nude love making and masturbation scenes and it's still dull something is seriously wrong. VERY morbid ending too. Worth a look but the slow pace makes it a chore to watch At times.

The script and direction meld into a strong movie. With charm and humor to spare, this film was among the top echelon of movies from 1976. The characters in this film have a lot of depth, and that makes all the difference. In the end, the audience gets a casserole of film elements and little of the satisfaction that comes from watching these types of movies. I guess if I was in a bad mood, this movie wouldn't be half as good, but I thought it to be enjoyable and would recommend it. This is a story about a place most people might not be able to conceive. It is a powerful film. Many scenes do not feel believable, but good performances help to enhance this story.

Someday, a good movie will be made about an adolescent boy with growing pains who develops sexual feelings for his mother (a situation that likely occurs in real life more than we care to realize), but this film isn't it. The boy in the movie is sick and scary, and it is impossible to feel anything for him except revulsion.I am puzzled by the positive responses the film has gotten, both here at IMDb and over the years. People say the film is erotic? Only if you aren't very discriminating. True eroticism is achieved only when the viewer can feel some empathy for either the characters or the sexual situation, which I did not feel here. Perhaps a genuine erotic scene could be made in which a boy spies on his mother while she masturbates, but not in this movie. The characters are too much of a turn-off. Scenes seem to exist just for shock effect, including the finale. I felt grubby after watching it, and wanted to take a shower.Yes, I know it isn't all just the movie---it was based on a Yukio Mishima novel, which was set in feudal Japan. Maybe it worked better in that setting, but I doubt it. So, sorry everyone. If you like the film, more power to you, but I am puzzled by your reaction.

Every time you make a movie based on a foreign novel something goes terribly wrong. I saw this movie when I was a kid while watching TV on a Saturday afternoon. I have to say that it is by far one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen. If this movie were set in a Japanese fishing village instead of an English one then I wouldn't have been so freaked out. I mean, I expect people from a different culture to behave differently than I do. The interaction between children and adults is different, etc. This movie is most disturbing because no one acts like you would expect them to. They are all bizarre. This movie will definitely make your skin crawl. We got a kid spying on his mom humping, freaky arian friends that like to murder and dissect animals, and then the jaw dropping ending.You could achieve a similar effect if you made a movie about a family in Iraq that doesn't like the fact that a daughter dates someone without permission. So the father and the brothers kill her. In a foreign context like that we might find the story disturbing but not totally creepy.Now make it a white American family living in the suburbs. Throw in a lot of neighbors who all think the same way and condone the ritual murder. Talk about creepy. You finally just scratch your head and say, where are these people from, mars?