Namo Kawase’s ‘True Mothers’ (Asa ga kuru) runs at almost two and a half hours, and yes, the story runs at a very slow pace. But it is such a powerful personal story that every minute savors. Kawase is a photographer spo each frame is beautifully set up (Hiroshima looks serenely perfect in here) and the story slowly cuts through your heart, and deep.
Satoko (Hiromi Nagasaku) cannot have a child because of her husband’s sperm is blocked, so they go through a non profit called Baby Baton to adopt a child through young mothers who cannot raise their babies.
Hikaru (Aju Makita) plays the fourteen year old teenager who gives birth to the child they adopt, and she is the heart of the piece. Hikaru goes throughg heartbreak after heartbreak and one day she shows up at the couple’s door step threatening to blackmail them about the child if they don’t pay her money. “Who are you,’ they reply. They met her when the baby was born and they can’t believe that tender young woman is the same one before their eyes.
There’ more to the story, of course, which is told through non-linear flashbacks. You get to know these characters fully, and they are certainly not one-dimensional. And you care for them, you want them to succeed, to capture their dreams. This is one of those films that caught me by surprise. It is such a simple story, but the emotions tied to it are complex. And all of it feels real.
Sometimes all you need is seven songs to make a mark. Hiromi Kanda titled her new album ‘Seven Elegant Ballads,’ and it’s not false advertising. It only takes a second to impress me (or not) and I definitely was enamored by her voice quickly. She sings these seven songs (five standards and two originals) with soulful honesty that you cannot help but be taken by her music right away. Her husband, Yusuke Hoguchi has crafted classic arrangement that showcase these songs and her voice impeccably. And that voice – so fully soulful that you know she knows she feels every lyric of these songs even though (I assume) that English is not her first language. Emotion really is universal, it seems. I like that her ‘Smile’ is not too melancholy – there is an uplifting message in her version. And ‘Moonlight in Vermont’ sounds like a song you hear as you look into a big moon. Surprisingly, I even like the originals – ‘Days of Yesterday’ is a pleasant surprise (I read it was a hit for her years ago) Don’t sleep on these seven ballads.
Well, look at me. I was just bemoaning that there isn’t much to see nowadays, and we are in the doldrums of movie releases, when I see a film that is so good that it has invigorated my interest in seeing more films. Hikari’s ’37 Seconds’ is now streaming on Netflix and I cannot think of a better film to watch right this very minute.
Saw two films recently that have very similar themes that come from different countries and I thought, relationship themes are all really universal.
There is a lot more complexity in ‘Athlete:Ore ga kari ni obereta hibi,’ which comes from Japan. Directed by Oe Takamasa, it is a story of a man (Joe Nakamura) who is a frustrated swimmer. After his wife leaves him for another man, he wanders into the Tokyo gay district and meets Yutaka (Yohdi Kondo) and falls in love with him, which startles even him. But Yutaka has bigger dreams, like going to animation school in France. I liked this film a lot, and appreciated the tender touch it gave to the story. I felt that two characters fell in love with each other, and Nakamura gives a raw performance. I found it curious that Yutaka looked Korean, perhaps because now all over Asia, the ‘Korean look’ is the new standard of beauty. This film is a lot more meaty than the previous one, and perhaps that’s why I preferred it more.
I was at Luckyscent in search of when this new (to me) line caught my eye – J Scent. I joked, ‘is this perfume for Jewish people?’ but then I realized the J stands for Japan.
‘Ramen Teh,’ just like last year’s mega hit ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ mostly centers around the Asian experience of Chinese people living in Singapore. But just like the ramen soup dish, the story has both Chinese and Japanese elements. Directed by Eric Khoo, the film is about a young man Masato (Takumi Saito) who searches for answers in his familial history. He goes to Singapore because he wants to learn how to cook bak kut teh, but really, he is searching for what happened to his family. His father passed away cold and unhappy, unable to move on from his wife’s early passing. Their family moved from Singapore to Japan when he was young, and he only has his mother’s diary (written in Cantonese, which he doesn’t understand) as a clue. The movie rolls smoothly, with every reveal at the right place, and you cannot help but get engrossed with these characters. It showcases Singapore pretty well, not just the ‘rich areas’ which was the focus of that ‘other’ movie. And foodies will have a field day with the rich and colorful dishes they make here. Your eyes will be inf or a feast.
A lot of times, when we don’t have blood-related family (or when we have problems with them) we build our own families through friends. In Director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ‘Shoplifters,’ he gives he definition of family a very different spin. There are a lot of people in this family, and in the beginning, we think they are all related by blood, and then slowly we see, like an onion being peeled, that there is more layers to how this family become one, even as they add a new member to it. At first, I had a little bit of problem with the film, as I really do not like films that show poverty porn, especially in Asian countries (although, admittedly, they are not many from Japan) Ultimately, this film is much more than what it shows, and it has a big beating heart in the middle of it. I know this film won the Palm d’Or at Cannes this year, and I do think that this is one of those films that would probably benefit from repeated viewings – it is subtle and there’s skin under its skin. I don’t know, honestly, if I got them all in one viewing, and there are times when I felt it was just a bit more self-indulgent that I could take. But I found myself thinking about the film more as I was walking home from seeing it. I found myself asking, ‘what did I just see,’ and then trying to search for answers.
‘Sway,’ by Rooth Tang spins three interwoven tales of Asians all over the world – stories from Bangkok, Paris/ Three different kid of Asian nationalities are at play here – a Thai couple who just meet wanting to move to Los Angeles, a Chinese couple in Paris who are at a crossroad in their relationship, and a Los Angeles Japanese couple dealing with a young daughter. The stories are a little underwhelming, but the actors are believable making these not a waste of time. You can say these are ‘regular’ Asian stories before they were crazy and rich.
‘Porto’ by Gabe Klinger is set in Porto, in Portugal and that place as been in my zeitgeist lately because a friend just moved there. It is shot beautifully here, and that alone is worth the price of admission. Anton Yelchin and Lucie Lucas play a couple who just meet and have an instant connection. this is one of those films that you either like or not – count me among the former. I have always liked stories about ‘two ships that pass in the night,’ and how an instant connection could blossom into something else – it’s that potential that appeals to the hopeless romantic in me. Yelchin is fine here, in one of his last roles before perishing, and it makes the film more poignant. This is one of those films that will make you think long afters teh credits have rolled
The title ‘All These Small Moments,’ perfectly describes this film about adolescent angst. Brendan Myer plays a teenager who is enamored by a girl he sees on the bus (Jemima Kirke) while he deals with familial problems in his household. Somehow, though, neither of the stories are fully formed enough for something to really resonate. While there are sweet and tender moments. but these small moments are too small to matter. On another note, I still have a difficult time grasping that Molly Ringwald is doing all these mother-of-adults- roles. I mean, she is amy age! Cue violins.
Atsuko Hirayanagi’s ‘Oh Lucy’ is one of those movies that is a portrait of the art of melancholy, and that’s one of my favorite genres. It tells of how loneliness shapes a person’s life, and how one can react to an escape from it. This film is bookended by scenes at a Japanese train station, presumably a metaphor on how people come in and out of our lives in myriads of ways, and most of the time, they serve a purpose. Shinobu Terajima is Setsuko, alonely woman in a boring job. She gets enrolled in an American English class and meets a handsome teacher John(Josh Hartnett) and from there gets tangled in a spiral of a story. The journey takes her to Southern California with her sister and niece – and John, and in the process she finds herself, but not without some emotional collateral damage. If there is one word I can use to describe the film, it’s unpredictable. The film takes you different places, but they never seem gimmicky, and you even feel like everything makes sense and believable. This is mostly because of a great performance from Terajima, who transfers from a shy and meek Japanese woman to one thrust in California sunshine, hanging out at seedy motels 
and dirty tattoo parlors. Hartnett is great here, too a boorish ugly American, but much more than that, thanks to his sensitive performance, showing sensitivity and vulnerability, and he is still fine as freak, too. I really do wish he becomes more visible. I really can’t help but really be taken by this film, and even relate to it, as I have started this new chapter of living life truly alone. This is a great film filled with sadness, and for me, a reflection of what is real in life a lot of times.
Marica Hiraga is a Japanese jazz singer whose name I have encountered numerous times over the years. But somehow someway I never really appreciated any of her previous albums before. They all seemed generic, though admittedly I never really gave it a real chance. So what I did was sat down and listened and paid attention to the music.
Luha Thoughts 