Film
Still Walking
- Director
- Hirokazu Kore-eda
- Certificate
- U
- Running Time
- 114 mins
Hirokazu Kore-eda invited comparison to the master of family drama, Yasujiro Ozu, with this finely calibrated, beautifully observed and deceptively simple tale of a difficult family gathering, which unfolds over 24 hours. It’s a familiar set-up, usually leading to histrionics in US films. In Kore-eda’s expert hands, virtually nothing happens very slowly indeed and all the crockery remains intact. Although this won’t be to all tastes, his subtle, naturalistic depiction of family dynamics bristles with versimillitude. The repast (sea urchin, radish, etc) may be unfamiliar, but there’s nothing culturally specific about the emotions being barely repressed here.
The gathering is to mark the 15th anniversary of the death in tragic circumstances of Junpei, older brother of fortysomething Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) and Chinami (You – no, really: that’s her name in full). Chinami gets to their parents’ home first, largely because she has an ulterior motive. Ryota, who’s making the journey with new wife Yukari (Yui Natsukawa) and stepson Atsushi (Shohei Tanaka), is eager to stay no longer than necessary, and wonders whether they can find an excuse to scarper before sundown. The reason for his anxiety soon becomes apparent. Elderly dad (Yoshio Harada) is a brusque semi-retired doctor who greets his guests with no great enthusiasm and slopes off to his study. Mum (a terrific performance by Kirin Kiki, in a role apparently inspired by Kore-eda’s own late mother) is more gregarious but also a tactless traditionalist who makes plain her disapproval of Ryota’s marriage to a widowed ‘used model’ (“At least a divorcee chose to leave her husband,” she sniffs) and tells him he’s not a “real father”. While the children romp, outsider Yukari becomes increasingly uncomfortable as the barbs fly, and Ryota attempts to conceal his current unemployment from tetchy, insecure dad, who clearly takes the view that the wrong son died. It transpires that noble Junpei perished while saving a boy from drowning. Now a rather fat and sweaty grown man of low social status, this poor wretch is also obliged to endure the parents’ withering contempt at their increasingly uncomfortable annual event.
It’s back on screen in the Watershed’s comprehensive Of Flesh & Blood: The Cinema of Hirokazu Kore-eda season.
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