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I loved Hirokazu Kore-eda's "After-Life"--I think it's almost a perfect movie. So I was very excited when his new movie, "Nobody Knows," opened in the area.
It's like Grave of the Fireflies plus two. It had me weeping, and not in a manipulative sentimental kind of way. It was excellent, but know going into it that this is not the uplifting story of the triumph of the human spirit. Kore-eda tends to be slow, quiet, atmospheric, and especially so here; it's a 2 1/2 hour long movie, very thoughtfully paced, and if you're not used to Japanese movies you'll keep waiting and waiting for something to happen. (In the end, something does happen, which is more than I can say for some Japanese movies). But I loved the buildup of details because the minutiae of everyday life really made it feel like Japan.
And that worked on a psychological level too.
This is a movie about four siblings, the oldest one twelve years old, living on their own after being abandoned by their mother. Try as they might to keep things together, they...can't. Boy, that was Japan for me--sometimes. I didn't know how to do things. I felt like I slipped behind no matter how much I ran. I felt so unready for the real world.
I'm still unready, but at least I'm not buying all my meals from the convenience store because I can't deal with turning on the stove and making small talk with the Chinese exchange students and cooking and cleaning up.
So it was a pretty intense movie for me, psychologically. I have no idea whether it's the kind of movie that would resonate the same way with someone else, but...trust me, it was very good.
It's like Grave of the Fireflies plus two. It had me weeping, and not in a manipulative sentimental kind of way. It was excellent, but know going into it that this is not the uplifting story of the triumph of the human spirit. Kore-eda tends to be slow, quiet, atmospheric, and especially so here; it's a 2 1/2 hour long movie, very thoughtfully paced, and if you're not used to Japanese movies you'll keep waiting and waiting for something to happen. (In the end, something does happen, which is more than I can say for some Japanese movies). But I loved the buildup of details because the minutiae of everyday life really made it feel like Japan.
And that worked on a psychological level too.
This is a movie about four siblings, the oldest one twelve years old, living on their own after being abandoned by their mother. Try as they might to keep things together, they...can't. Boy, that was Japan for me--sometimes. I didn't know how to do things. I felt like I slipped behind no matter how much I ran. I felt so unready for the real world.
I'm still unready, but at least I'm not buying all my meals from the convenience store because I can't deal with turning on the stove and making small talk with the Chinese exchange students and cooking and cleaning up.
So it was a pretty intense movie for me, psychologically. I have no idea whether it's the kind of movie that would resonate the same way with someone else, but...trust me, it was very good.