A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn - Production and Critical Reception

Production and Critical Reception

Director Daisuke Gotō cites Yasujirō Ozu's Late Spring (1949) and Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (1976) as influences on A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn. The film was screened at the 2004 New School of Pink-Movies, a showcase for the younger "Seven Lucky Gods of Pink" (ピンク七福神, shichifukujin?) generation of pink film makers. Though Gotō's career extends to the days of Nikkatsu's Roman porno films-- he has the distinction of filming the last entry in that long-running series-- he was a relative unknown at the time. The film was chosen as the fifth best pink film release for 2003 at the annual Pink Grand Prix ceremony.

American audiences first saw A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas in September 2008. In his Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema (2008), pink film authority Jasper Sharp writes A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn is, "pink film at its most inventive, albeit frankly bewildering."

The British site, DVDTimes, writes that A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn is "a film of bittersweet sentiments, which credibly deals with loneliness, greed and the coming to terms with old age." The site judges Hajime Oba’s musical soundtrack as "beautifully poignant", and the cinematography, "keeps things visually alluring, with the Japanese countryside providing a pleasant change of pace."