Like Father, Like Son

High up in their residential tower, overlooking other Tokyo towers, Ryoto and Midorino are working purposefully towards planning their six year old's life. Until they realise that there was a mistake at the hospital 6 years ago and Keita was never their child. The hospital puts them in touch with the other family who has their 'real' child. Should they exchange? Why? Why not? But it did raise a few related questions that I should be mindful of in the future: nature vs nurture, blood vs emotion, piano classes vs loafing. 

Apparently dealing with parenting, family issues / misplaced, dead children seems to be director Hirokazu Kore-eda's speciality and does a decent job of tugging at your heart. Unfortunately, it is through a bunch of steroteypical characters and a plot that focusses on simplicity.

Rating: * * 

Still Walking

A family gathers to commemorate the death anniversary of the eldest son. The parents, a crabby couple, have lived in their family home for decades. Descending on them are their remaining son and daughter along with their family. As the day flows, the layers of family are slowly peeled away, revealing the complexities of an outwardly simple family. Hirokazu Koreeda has yet again expanded his range by attacking and conquering an Yasujiro Ozu like family drama.

Rating:  * * * +

Maborosi

Yumiko's lasting childhood memory is that of her grandmother's disappearance. Adulthood finds her drifting in to an arranged marriage after her husband's suicide. Slowly she grows to love the fisherman she marries. But the ghost of her first husband's suicide returns to haunt her. She like many of us keeps postponing her goodbyes... another meditative film from Hirokazu Koreeda.

Rating: * * +

After Life

A way station where the dead sift through their memories to choose an ever lasting one. The counselors who are dead themselves help in earnest. A film that will cause introspection but there is something missing in its execution that makes it a hard film to stash away in long term memory.

Rating: * +

Hana

Soza (Junichi Okada) embeds himself in the poor quarters of Edo, seeking vengeance for the death of his father. But life in the row houses slowly starts to grow on him especially when he starts to tutor the neighborhood kids. Hirokazu Koreeda's film is an anti-thesis to most movies depicting the jidaigeki era. The protagonist is better at wielding a pen rather than a sword and is heavily conflicted about his duty. The other characters in the film are quirky and fit seamlessly in the scenes of comic realism. Koreeda's masterstroke is in juxtaposing the story of the  47 ronin by having a couple of them hiding out in the row houses. Putting Tadanobu Asano in a small but important role just adds to the class of the movie. And to really sweeten the deal there is Rie Miyazawa... enough said!

Rating: * * *