One evening, I was looking for something soothing and gentle for a movie, and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After The Storm (2016; Umi yori mo Mada Fukaku) worked its charms on me. I’ve only seen Kore-eda’s Shoplifters and that had me bawling at the end, with its displays of human kindness and compassion in an unjust world. Sometimes nice and gentle are held against a movie; sentimentality viewed as an enemy of taste. I think the filmmaker here is aware of the difficulty that comes with life, particularly the sense of disappointment and faded dreams that the main character, Ryota (Hiroshi Abe), embodies in his tall, lanky frame and unshaven, faded looks. A once promising novelist who has worked too long at being a private detective, wasting his earnings on a gambling addiction. Hung up on his ex-wife Kyoko (Yoko Maki) and child Shingon(Taiyo Yoshizawa) who he can never financially support, Ryota also hopes for finding something to pawn or sell after the death of his father. His sister, a baker, Chinatsu (Satomi Kobayashi) thinks less of him, while his mother Yoshiko (Kirin Kili) holds out some hope, offering frozen ice cups as a treat when he visits. All of this unfolds patiently and observationally as we take in the apartment complex where they all grew up and where the mother still lives, and how the characters fill their days, particularly Ryota stuck on the dreams he used to have for his writing career and his family. The storm referred to in the title is a typhoon that comes quite late in the film, and establishes a space where the characters have to reckon with their disappointments, when the majority of the characters have to stay over in the one space and wait out the harsh weather. Look, this movie already had me primed to flood the waterworks when the elderly mother walked after the son, holding onto his satchel as they ambled through the apartment complex. There’s a wry, low-key humour, particularly in the detective scenes, and when characters say something deep, and realise with self-awareness that they might have said something profound. As the movie points out, it’s easy enough to express some wisdom in the middle of a conversation. But can you stick to it and make it part of how you live? Lovely performances and charming cinematography. Sweet score by Hanaregumi. Great to see Shoplifters’ Lily Franky in support as the detectives’ boss. Available to stream on SBS On Demand. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 