I didn't realize it at first, but I've seen one of Hirokazu Kore-eda's movies before. I watched After Life in a Japanese cinema class in college and it was one of the most profound films I had ever seen. The basic question the film asks is "If you could only take one memory with you for all of eternity what would it be?" It is a great movie, but I don't think I'd ever want to watch it again because of how deep and emotional it is. Apparently many of Kore-eda's works deal a lot with death, loss and memory. These themes are at the heart of his masterful Still Walking.
Every year, the Yokoyama family gather together to commemorate the death of the eldest son, Junpei, who drowned over a decade ago while saving someone's life. Ryota, the second son, dreads these trips back home. His father had always favored Junpei and disapproved of Ryota. He is especially worried this year as it is the first time his parents will meet his new wife Yukari and step-son. He is worried what they will think as she is a widower. (His mother tells his sister that it is almost better if Yukari were divorced instead of widowed; at least divorcees chose to leave their husbands.) When Ryota arrives at his parents' house, you can see the unease gather in his face, the tension in the room as he greets his father, the nervous anticipation as his mother sizes up Yukari. It is one of the rare occasions when both the surviving children visit, but it is a bittersweet ruinunion and only a reminder of Junpei's absence. Ryota, overshadowed by his brother in both life and death, cannot wait to get out of there.
The film is all about suppressed emotion, underlying tension, things that are left unsaid, unresolved pain and subtle yet powerful moments. The story is deceptively quiet but there is so much boiling underneath the surface. The story focuses on just this one day, but the thoughts and emotions that you see have been there ever since Junpei's death, if not earlier. I loved how the film says so much by saying so little. And the stuff that finally does get said can hurt so much, or uplift even higher.
I basically loved everything about this film; the acting, the direction, the unique compositions, how touching the story is, how simple yet complex it is. It would be easy to gloss over it and say that nothing really happens in the film and you'd be somewhat right. Nothing really gets resolved, not much really happens in terms of action, but I don't think that isn't the point of the film. It is meant to be a vehicle for emotion, for thought. It is supposed to touch and it certainly does.
Grade: A
Sorry for the crappy entry (I realize I didn't really say anything specific about the film basically only generalizations), especially for such a great film, but I was out all night/morning and this is the best I could come up with after being up almost 24 hours...
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