Moving

This film is a masterpiece of emotions, incredibly human, real, tangent, and unescapable emotions. Counting this was filmed in 1993, and I only had the random luck to find it now, gives me hope for all the other great films hiding from me.

Has to be said, Japan has a certain charm when it comes to a story like this, I don't have much to say, it's one of those simple movies that can capture the emotions of a kid and a family very well with elegance and simplicity.

The closing scene alone in my opinion is a masterclass of how to put into practice a very simple idea, but with all the correct parameters, locations and photography is 10/10, especially the Forest scenes's took hours probably to find perfect angles,There is an incredible scene of the girl walking next to the mist, that is stuff you have to wait for the exact right moment, season, and time frame to film.

I know that Sinji is probably very well known in Japan, but in Europe is very rare to find his material, glad someone is pushing his name now. Chapeau.

Director Shinji Somai is well known in Japan but largely forgotten elsewhere. His films are however of a high quality. Maybe his early death in 2001 at the age of 53 or the fact that his films are somewhere in between arthouse and commercial mainstream has contributed to his fall into oblivion.

Fortunately the Filmmuseum Amsterdam re-released three of his films recently. Like many other Somai films they portray youthful characters. In "P. P. Rider" (1983) and "Typhoon club" (1985, a darker version of "The breakfast club" (also 1985, John Hughes)) the young characters are of high school age. In "Moving" (1993) the young character has the age of elementary school. "P. P. Rider" and "Typjoon club" were only shown in Amsterdam, "Moving" got a nationwide re-release.

"Moving" is seen through the eyes of Renko, whose parents are in the early stages of divorce. There are other films about divorce. "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979, Robert Benton) is seen largely from the points of view of the parents while in "Loveless" (2017, Andrey Zvyagintsev) the boy is a rather passive victim of the divorce.

Renko is a victim in the sense that she misses her father, but she is anything but passive. In the film she runs (away) a lot. On the one hand to get rid of her frustration, on the other hand to give her parents a a shared problem that might bring them closer together again. It is up to the viewer to decide which of the two interpretations he/she chooses.

The brilliancy of the film resides however towards the end, when the film quit suddenly changes from rather down to earth to somewhat mythical. This ending is situated during a Japanese fire festival. I suspect I would have liked the second half of the film even more woud I have known more about the meaning of this festival. Even without this knowledge however the sudden shift to magical realism was great in itself.

This is like a hunter's trap ensnaring you with pain and suddenly you are stuck. One of the more brutal films I have seen. Unlike Somai's other works there are not any joyous peaks to balance the brutality, presenting a picture of maybe where those films came from. I was at first waiting for fun scenes, so it threw me off. I wouldn't say it is a downer. It is just far more truth than you will ever see in a film. The mom hates being a mom, doesn't like her daughter, is in an apathetic state. The best you can say is she offers her a sober unfiltered reality. The dad isn't any better. He's perplexed by her. They are not hateful or entirely unsympathetic. They are very low key and she is high key. She wants to be Somai's Tokyo Heaven or Sailor Suit protagonist. Instead she is given the disappointment of reality. She goes running off and wandering across nature. It becomes this Freudian dream machine. I think in those bits the film indulges too much, however with that said, it is functional and necessary. In film you go to nature as either a happy ending, or here, for hardship, enlightenment, renewal. It is presenting her rock bottom moment coming out the other end stronger, and mom is there waiting; not the 'what if' but the 'what is'. But the film accomplished something only the most vital works of cinema are able, it is impossible to watch this and your mind not go to a hundred places in your memories. It has countless scenes and vignettes that burn in the brain. Viewing Somai's body of work I can see this as one of his most crucial pieces, even though I do not have to be happy about that. I noticed from the start he is an artist who constantly tries to top himself and bring more for the audience than last time out.

This poignant coming of age drama about the grief that marital unrest can cause a child is an early masterpiece by late Shinji Somai (Sailor Suit and Machine Gun) whose career was over almost before it began. 'Moving' is not free from sentiment and melodrama, but luckily doesn't put it too thickly. Instead, he underscores the human drama, backed by an excellent cast, with little Renko leading the way. Although this is one of Somei's unusual works, he shows all his virtuosity here with a number of beautifully filmed scenes and towards the end the film becomes more surreal. It's also a grand visual spectacle (Toyomichi Kurita's cinematography is dreamy and captures fully all the wonder of Eri Yamamoto's art direction); in this case, this is doubly important, given how symbolic this work is. In addition, it may be the only live-action film that seems to have both been inspired by the work of Ghibli Studios (particularly Isao Takahata's Only Yesterday, Chie the Brat and provided a source of inspiration in return (to Hayoa Miyazaki's Spirited Away). Based on the novel "Ohikkoshi", by Hiko Tanaka, the film revolves around Renko, a girl in the sixth grade (between 11 and 12 years old) whose parents' divorce shutters her happy but fragile life. The subject of divorce and its profound impact on the child, and the fluctuations realistically and spontaneously, up to her inner feelings, which is told through a child's eye perspective and translated in a charming visual language.

As well, there is a wealth of wonderful moments: among my favorites - Renko's rant with her mom, when Renko moonwalked and howled at the moon! Perhaps my favorite scene is near the end during the carnival in the beach. It is that it is charming without being cheap or smarmy. The unpretentious manner in which the story is told is such a joyful antidote to the average Hollywood film. This drama delights with it's simplicity, allowing the drama to come to us in an unhurried telling and I think 'Moving' is more successful as a mood piece than as narrative. There's a stream-of-consciousness quality here - appropriately so; that could very well be the intent. Moving by Somai Shinji (1993) is it the most beautiful Japanese film of its decade even though there is The Labyrinth of Dreams, Yumeji, April Story, Sonatine or even Eureka during this period.

It is truly exquisite, way up there with Stanislaw Rózewicz's Birth Certificate (1961), Dorota Kedzierzawska's Crows (1994), Patricio Kaulen's A Long Journey (1967), Kjell Grede's Hugo and Josephine (1967), Amir Naderi's The Runner (1984), Mariana Rondón's Bad Hair (2013), Yared Zeleke's Lamb (2015), Achero Mañas's El Bola (2000), Tony Gatlif's Mondo (1995), Nabil Ayouch's Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets (2000), Héctor Babenco's Pixote (1980), Viktoras Starosas I Love the Headmistress (1978), Xhanfise Keko's Tomka and His Friends (1977), Maciej Dejczer's 300 Miles to Heaven (1989), Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher (1999), Byambasuren Davaa's The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005), David Zellner's Kid-Thing (2012), Terence Davies's The Long Day Closes (1992), Samira Makhmalbaf's The Apple (1998), So Yong Kim's Treeless Mountain (2008), Céline Sciamma's Tomboy (2011), Andrés Wood's Machuca (2004), Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl (2001), Jacques Doillon's Ponette (1996), Akihiko Shiota Canary (2004), Manoel de Oliveira's Aniki-Bóbó (1942), Andrey Zvyagintsev's The Return (2003), Ken Loach's Kes (1969), Shane Meadows's This Is England (2006), Karel Kachyna's The High Wall (1964), Vittorio De Sica's The Children Are Watching Us (1944), Wojciech Marczewski's Weiser (2001), Jan Sverák's Kolya (1996), Petar Lalovic's Some Birds Can't Fly (1997), Pavel Chukhray The Thief (1997), Soo-il Jeon's With a Girl of Black Soil (2007), Louis Malle's Zazie dans le Metro (1960), Claude Jutra's Mon oncle Antoine (1971), François Truffaut's 400 Blows (1959), Lasse Hallström's My Life as a Dog (1985), Cary Joji Fukunaga's Beasts of No Nation (2015), ), Yoon Ga-eun's The World Of Us (2016), Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1982), Lev Golub's Devochka ishchet otsa/Girl Seeks Father (1959), Yuan Zhang's Little Red Flowers (2006) Sean Baker's The Florida Project (2017), Edward Yang's Yi Yi (2000) and Carlos Saura's Cria Cuervos (1976).

A true timeless masterpiece that has never ceased to be emulated, It is one of the real hidden treasures of Japanese cinema compared to Ghibli. It is so little recognized that doesn't even have DECENT votes on IMDB. Mandatory for every lover of cinema, something which should be highly prized.