Kore-eda is very much a filmmaker of place; he has lived and known many of the cities and towns in which his films are set. We are thus treated to an insider’s view of a place, not the Japan of tourist brochures or sumptuous period films, but ordinary Japanese places which feel very much like…
Sagami Bay, blue hydrangeas, pale-pink cherry blossoms, freshly-picked plums, freshly-caught seafood, torrential rain, and four very elegant and dignified sisters who are as tough as mountains. In Our Little Sister (from the novel Umimachi Diary), Kore-eda conveys an exquisite but very real world where time, nature, memory, and community both serve as foreground and background to…
This strange and disturbing film is nonetheless a compelling 198 minutes of mysterious motivations and surprising outbursts. Sawa, a caregiver for geriatric patients, goes on the road after a traumatic experience with one of her elderly male clients. The opening sequence which documents this experience and sets the tone for her perambulations is a complete…
It was recently announced that the American film company DreamWorks Studios bought the remake rights to Hirozaku Kore-eda’s latest (and well-received) film. This is not a surprising move, since Mr. Spielberg (who was on this year’s Cannes Film Festival jury, which awarded the Jury Prize to the film) has a great ear for what makes…
