A kind of Japanese take on Greed (and set in the same time period, the 1890s), The Golden Demon is about the deleterious effects of money on two people who are in love. Money drives a young woman's family to promise her in marriage to a wealthy fop who's clearly indifferent to anyone's feelings but his own. Miya (Fujiko Yamamoto) hasn't the heart to tell her true sweetheart Kan-ichi (Jun Negami) that she had little say in the decision; their confrontation is beautifully staged in the twilight along a beach, with their faces going in and out of deep shadows. Kan-ichi then becomes a loan shark par excellence whose only rival, Akagashi (Mitsuko Mito, in a scene-stealing performance), is also in love with him. Miya watches in dismay as her husband flouts his marital vows, but when she tries to approach Kan-ichi for a reconciliation, his bitterness at losing her overcomes his sense. If the story takes a couple of melodramatic turns toward the end, it's still a moving account of love thwarted by lust for the material. There's also a wonderful sequence of Kan-ichi and his classmates playing baseball!