554 Still Walking

[Michael Kerpan]

A box set of docs (with subs or dubs) was once slated for release in Japan -- but I don't think this set ever got released. The Cocco film is new-ish -- and a wonderful find (as it introduced me to one of the most interesting Japanese performers I've run across -- check her out on youtube, which may have bits and pieces from HK's film).

[Jun-Dai]

I think Nobody Knows is kind of an interesting character exploration and thought exercise, and while the kids give excellent performances (one talent Koreeda has beyond most other directors), I felt the film didn't serve much of a purpose. It all felt a bit contrived and I didn't find the characters to be particularly real.

I don't think Koreeda was trying to actually explore what the kids went through in the incident the film is based on (that would have been far more shocking and gruesome), but rather it was a departure point for an exploration of something else. Not really a Lord of the Fliesian kind of unsupervised children revealing behavior that we adults are merely suppressing (or exhibiting on a grander scale), but rather an exploration of childrens' emotions when they don't really know what to do, and they don't have adults to react to. It's very dreamlike, like Maborosi and Afterlife, but ultimately I found myself unable to derive much meaning from it, and it didn't have the aesthetic qualities of the other two films either.

Not a failure, by any means. I can't help thinking that if I could find another way to think about the film, I'd like it a lot more, but for some reasons it fell flat for me both times I watched it.

Anyhow, hopefully CC will get their hands on it.

[knives]

I'd love to mount a defense, but the best I'm coming up with is that you're not getting it which is no defense at all. The film probably hits me harder than most because I grew up in a near identical situation with four younger siblings and a single mum who would go away for months at a time for business purposes (she's still working for the military). With that bias in mind I know that there's no way for me to even understand some of the criticisms like the question of exploration let alone respond.

[Michael Kerpan]

Still Walking (like Tokyo Story) portrays a family setting which is almost uncannily familiar to me -- whereas the situation is Nobody Knows is totally outside _my_ realm of experience. ;~}

[onedimension]

Haven't seen it, but I get a 'The Flower That Drank The Moon' vibe..

Pretty cryptic utterance.

Which Koreeda film are you dissing? Still Walking -- or Maborosi?

I haven't seen either, but the praise, in this thread at least, contains few specifics and mostly conveys that many are enamored with the film & director.. it SOUNDS dreadful - "lyrical" is the worst word in cinema - but the Ozu comparisons are lofty enough that I'll give it an open, optimistic viewing, & remind me that some of my favorites might sound dreadful at first description as well.

[Michael Kerpan]

Still Walking has "lyrical" moments -- but it is mostly memorable to me for the wickedly sharp (funny and truthful) observations of mundane (but not uninteresting) family life. And the acting is simply uniformly perfect.

[Finch]

A quick question about the DVDs of After Life: the New Yorker is predictably terrible and unfortunately the UK DVD seems to be a direct port of the New Yorker (not even anarmorphic). I suppose we should be lucky that the Japanese Bandai disc is English-subbed in the first place but even older titles like this are still exorbitantly priced at yeasia ($50/£32 + shipping!). CD-Japan doesn't seem that much cheaper. As Afterlife goes, is the Bandai the only game in town, or does anyone know if there's perhaps a worthwhile Korean or HK release of the film with English subs?

[Michael Kerpan]

There are subbed Korean releases of some of these earlier Koreeda films (if they are in print, these should show up on searches at YesAsia). I have never read any comparisons of the Japanese and Korean releases.

Maborosi and After Life are each 2793 yen at Amazon Japan -- but you need to order about 5 things in order for the very high express postage to be feasible.

[Finch]

Mike, thanks for the reply. I've seen the Spectrum for Maborosi on Beaver, and will see if I can find a Korean disc of After Life anywhere. If all else fails, I'll bite the bullet and get the Bandai.

[Michael Kerpan]

If you can figure out how to maneuver through Amazon's Japanese listings -- and are willing to order a big batch (luckily, future releases get shipped as released -- with no EXTRA charge), Amazon often has much lower prices than anywhere else (especially for new releases).

Good luck!

[Jun-Dai]

@onedimension:

I don't think I'd ever use lyrical to describe a film, and even if I did, I would use it for this one (maybe something like L'Atalante?).

How's haunting? That's my biggest film reviewer pet peeve.

As for Still Walking, I wouldn't recommend the film without qualifications. It just so happens to be that I'm really interested in films like Still Walking, but viewed at from another perspective, Still Walking probably epitomizes more than most what people are talking about when they off-handedly refer to boring, slow, 'foreign', art-house films. If you're not really interested in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films (particularly something like Cafe Lumiere or Flight of the Red Balloon) or Jia Zhangke's films, or you didn't care for Maboroshi, then you might want to stay away from this one.

[Michael Kerpan]

I would say that Still Walking is "livelier" than most Hou and Jia films -- more on the "activity" level of Ozu and Naruse.

(speaking as a big fan of all five directors in question).

[Finch]

If you can figure out how to maneuver through Amazon's Japanese listings -- and are willing to order a big batch (luckily, future releases get shipped as released -- with no EXTRA charge), Amazon often has much lower prices than anywhere else (especially for new releases).

Good luck!

Did some research and alas Sony's R3 of After Life only has Korean subs, and it's out of print anyhow. As for what other films to buy with After Life on Amazon Japan: I've been wanting to buy Golden Slumber for months but neither the Japanese Blu-Ray nor the shortly to be released Korean DVD are English-friendly (keeping my fingers crossed for a HK or US/UK release with English subs!), so I'm going to get After Life and Maborosi from Yesasia soon.

[Jun-Dai]

Well, maybe we can compromise and say that it's somewhere in between?

Most people that are at least a little bit interested in films that I've dragged to screenings of Ozu and Naruse found them engaging. I didn't have much luck with Cafe Lumiere or Flight of the Red Balloon, and I think Still Walking fared only slightly better.

I think part of it is that Ozu and Naruse have higher activity levels, but I think the bigger difference is that Ozu and Naruse tend to have more of a plot to them, even if they are often (in Ozu's case) subordinated to other aspects of the film. It's easier for most people, I think, to sit through a film of Andrei Rublev's length and slowness than to sit through a film that doesn't appear to have a plot, or whose plot only occasionally shines through all the talking.

[Michael Kerpan]

Well, perhaps Koreeda is (in part) neo-Shimizu-esque? Naoko Ogigami (Seagull Diner, Eyeglasses) certainly is -- and Nobuhiro Yamashita (Linda Linda Linda, Gentle Breeze in the Village) often is. All of these folks specialize in a somewhat more lively sort of plotlessness than Jia and Hou.

To a considerable extent, Koreeda's work resembles that of Jun Ichikawa (a great director whose work doesn't seem likely to ever get the acclaim it deserves -- now that he is prematurely deceased).

[Jun-Dai]

Well, in any case, I think if someone goes through most of the directors/films you and I have mentioned and doesn't like most or any of them, the chances that they'll like Still Walking are not high, and if they do like it, it will probably be for reasons that are somehow perpendicular to mine.

[Finch]

Most people that are at least a little bit interested in films that I've dragged to screenings of Ozu and Naruse found them engaging. I didn't have much luck with Cafe Lumiere or Flight of the Red Balloon, and I think Still Walking fared only slightly better.

I think part of it is that Ozu and Naruse have higher activity levels, but I think the bigger difference is that Ozu and Naruse tend to have more of a plot to them, even if they are often (in Ozu's case) subordinated to other aspects of the film.

I find it puzzling that anyone who has been exposed to a couple of Ozu films would struggle with Still Walking's pacing and plot (or alleged lack thereof). It didn't strike me as being noticeably different from Ozu (and I mean that as a compliment) in the way the film unfolds and how it conveys themes and meaning through dialogue and character action. To me, it seems that if someone complains about Still Walking's plot developments being less evident than Ozu's work, and the film being a slighter piece, that they haven't paid full attention to it. I found the film to be the best contemporary "channeling" of Ozu and the qualities of his best works (his blending of the mono no aware with humour, his sympathetic and yet clear-eyed portrayal of the characters etc); in other words, it was cinematic bliss for me. Only Mike Leigh's Another Year came anywhere near close this year.

[Jun-Dai]

As much as I liked the film, I still can't see it as channeling Ozu, except in some of the details. Once I have my hands on the Blu-ray, I'll look out especially for that, however.

[whaleallright]

Chuck Stephens has an essay on Kore-eda that I think captures both the good and the not-as-good about his films. Stephens expresses admiration for several of Kore-eda's films, but also the reservations that the director is somewhat stylistically opportunistic (assuming a "Hou" style for Maborosi at the height of Hou's appeal in Japan, etc.) and that he is hemmed in by an unwillingness to make errors in taste. I'm not going to say I agree with Stephens in every detail, but there is something a bit fashion-conscious and circumspect about Kore-eda that limits the appeal of most of his movies to me. I think his documentaries are an exception to this--at least, the ones I have seen.

I can't find Stephens's article online, but here's the citation:

Stephens, Chuck. "He Who Hesitates." Film Comment 41:2 (March/April 2005), p. 34, 36, 38.

[Michael Kerpan]

I remember reading that article by Stephens and getting really pissed off by it. While certainly very knowledgeable, his overall taste is about as far away from my own as can be found -- so I rarely agree with him. On this topic, I agreed with him even less than usual. ;~}

Some of his assertions seem pretty dodgy as a matter of fact. For instance, Hou was far from a popular favorite in Japan when Maborosi was made -- though his work was probably being presented in film schools and his films may have been seen and admired by a few cognoscenti.

[daniel p]

I haven't seen Mabarosi or Hana, but love all of Koreeda's other films. Air Doll was a sleeper for me, I wasn't sure I was getting a whole lot out of it, but ended up liking it and it has since stayed with me. After Life, Nobody Knows and Still Walking are my 3 favourites though. I do hope Mabarosi gets a Criterion release, I have resisted importing the DVD for this reason.

[jojo]

I remember watching NOBODY KNOWS and being most engaged by the film's presentation of interior and exterior spaces. In particular, the claustrophobic nature of the apartment and the "free" space when the kids (the older one in particular) venture outdoors on occasion. I saw this in the theatre, so I suspect that the visual and immersive impact is less pronounced on TV.

On AFTERLIFE, I was impressed by Kore-eda's creativity with a low budget, but while watching it I couldn't help thinking that the film was presented the way it was BECAUSE of the budget, so this thought may have prevented me from completely losing myself in the film.

[Michael Kerpan]

The most treasurable aspect of After Life (for me) are the people and their stories (both real and fictitious). Koreeda's roots are in documentary film making -- and he put this background to creative (and fully effective) use. I was wowed by this on first viewing -- and (as of last week) this has not lost a single bit of its impact.

[oldsheperd]

Afterlife in the Criterion Collection, hmmm.....

[Jun-Dai]

I wonder how much Afterlife was constrained by the budget. I think Kore-eda opted for 16mm to avoid intimidating the interviewees (nowadays he would probably use video?), and the film didn't really demand anything expensive in other ways.

And I certainly wouldn't trade the beautiful 16mm photography for anything cleaner.