It is Hirokazu Koreeda who has been making documentaries all the time, and the debut of a feature film (what am I talking about, how many "first films" has Asano made?), it was a blockbuster.
Beautiful shot.
Masterful use of light and shadow.
Quiet and sad. Long aftertaste.
This is also a movie belonging to Makiko Ekaku. She made her debut and swept the major newcomer awards in Japan that year. My impression of Makiko Ekaku is that of "Jiangxia" in "Second Lesson of General Affairs", which is quick and capable. But I didn't know she was so gentle when she debuted.
Asano's role is short-lived. But it cannot be written into the "Soy Sauce Series", because why the short-lived "Yu Fu" committed suicide is the answer that the heroine has been trying to find.
Yumiko's grandmother stubbornly ran away from home again and again, trying to return to her hometown of Shikoku from Osaka. Finally, once, she was not stopped by Yumiko, and she was not sent back by a kind person.
Yumiko's nightmares began. In her dream, she was always the little girl chasing out along the street lights, running and chasing, but couldn't "catch".
The childhood sweetheart Yu husband, the poor but beautiful marriage, the lovely son of three months, has not stopped her nightmare. But when awake, she was especially happy.
Yu Fu lost a bicycle, so he went to steal one near "the baseball stadium where the rich go". Two men paint the bike green. A small bell is attached to the bicycle key.
When Yu Fu talked about his former gas wrestler colleague, there was a little bit of loss and sadness for "age". But Yu Fu was still in his early thirties—he was kind and gentle, and tolerated the loud sound of the neighbor's grandfather's radio.
Sometimes Yumiko went to the factory to see him. Through the glass, she pressed her face against it, watching her beloved man work. The way Yufu looked at her with the controller, and the way Yumiko pressed her face against the glass even her nose was squished, are the two most beautiful scenes in the whole film.
They went for coffee together, rode their bike home, and discussed the freckles on Yumiko's face - little by little, she could see her love for him and her joy -
until Yu Fu had nothing to do with it. Symptomatic suicide on the railroad.
Ekaku Makiko's face is always in the shadows. Silent. restraint.
The bikes, painted green, gradually rust.
Days go by.
A few years later, she took her son to marry far away, a quiet town by the sea. A gentle and indifferent husband, a well-behaved stepdaughter, and a taciturn old father. Life seems to be well placed.
But "lost", like the joint pain that occurs on rainy days.
The boy who has no memory of the past is happily running in his new life.
However, because the old woman she lived with has not returned from the sea, she saw old things and acquaintances when she was traveling back home, and accidentally learned of her husband's deep love for his deceased wife, and even, her son went to the market to see a bicycle - every small reason , will tear open the scab of the wound. The more calm and submissive she is, the more turbulent the tide will be.
She finally ran away from home. The funeral procession along the seashore walked away for no apparent reason.
The funeral procession feels serene. Plain death is not "lost", it is the natural destination.
As for Grandma and Yu Fu, the abandonment without an answer is "lost", a question mark that is forever unresolved and cannot be calmed down.
The husband who came after her, faced with the problem she couldn't let go of, said that her father once saw a beautiful light calling from a distance when he went out to sea, and the "illusory light" sometimes called people to leave. Yu Fu must have been attracted by that beautiful light. Take away -
Yumiko finally wears a white shirt - she wears dark clothes all over the place, like a slender shadow.
The husband bought a bicycle and taught the boy to ride with his sister. Their laughing noises spread from the beach to the house.
Yumiko in a white shirt greeted her reticent father-in-law, "The weather is so nice." The old man who had seen the "phantom light" but was still alive and returned to the life of an ordinary person sat quietly. And Yumiko's white shirt, when she stood beside him, because of the backlight, she once again became a slender shadow. But the laughing sounds of the children and the husband still came.
This is the director's kind answer.
The warmth of real life can gradually heal those "lost" pains.
Like a seed, it takes root and no longer "seeks".
Like at the end of "The Empty Mirror", Tao Hong's sister, when she was busy preparing for the New Year's Eve dinner, received a "mother" from her stepdaughter. Loss, confusion, and setbacks can all be comforted and redeemed in this kind logic of "good people are rewarded." Use a "good" to cover the past years with a "full stop".
Is that the answer?
I don't know why, but I feel like, do we really need an answer?
Good or bad, cruel or warm?
Has the world really ever given an answer?
Or is it just that the "seeking" person gets tired, and when they can hold some warmth, stop and tell themselves, "this is the answer"?
Tadanobu Asano, 22, has a pale, fuzzy face. The impression of "Yu Fu" is particularly "light", like a trance dream.
A "husband" who loves his work, respects his father, cares for his relatives, and takes care of his children, with a thick and simple texture.
The uncontrollable dream drifted away. Like a kite, after flying for a long time, it finally fell on the heavy earth.
However, I still feel, do we really need an answer?
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