Fuchi ni tatsu

This is the second film Kôji Fukada has made about a stranger insinuating himself into a seemingly calm family. The stranger first starts working for the family in their home business, then he moves in to their home, and then ties between the stranger and the family are revealed and exploited. Kanji Furutachi played the stranger in the first one, *Hospitalité*. He plays the family man in this one. I like this one better.

Any time one of a character's introductory scenes consists of bad eating-acting you have the most simplistic of character definitions: the character is an idiot, with a bad moon rising. Both the family man and the stranger are introduced this way. They both turn out bad. No surprise. The first act of this film is full of bad indie nonsense, but after the lame setup material is out of the way, including Asano's snorefest of a background story speech that sets things in motion, the film finds it rhythm. And it's frighteningly good. And only then does it become unpredictable. There's a character swap about halfway through, and trying to figure out the relationship and motivations really put me on edge. The second half of the film is walking on razor blades.

Asano has pretty much jumped the shark, imo. He's played this character a hundred times. I don't think he does anything special here, but he's not bad. Kanji Furutachi is a good creep. In the first act he tries to act like a creep and fails. In the second half he becomes a creep and is awesome. But the star of this film is Mariko Tsutsui as the wife. Her face is hard-coded for WTF sadness. She does the Japanese thing of remaining calm in the face of super-WTF-ness, wonderfully. There are several big moments, impact moments, in the film where if I were her my head would have exploded. I had no idea how she would react. She's fantastic. The opposite of acting. She looks like she's processing the information given to her for the first time--not like she's acting the part of processing information. Bravo! When you see what happens to the kid it's funny, sad, super weird and then some. It remains understated which doubles the funny, sad, super weird and then some of it.

I have no idea what the ending says. It felt abstract and lame but didn't spoil things for me. I highly recommend the film to those who aren't bothered by bad eating-acting, or may not notice bad indie cliché scenes, and to those who are forgiving of bad script writing and acting during a film's setup phase.

I don't write many reviews, but when I do, they're short and to the point.

I don't consider myself a "film aficionado", and I'm certainly not an expert. I'm merely going to give a review of a normal, working class guy with a slightly above-average IQ.

I've seen many Japanese and Korean films, and so I am used to the slow pace of the movie. For those who don't know, picture 60 seconds of watching a family eating a meal while not saying a word.

With that said, I feel that it was too similar to other movies of the genre, and to me it was predictable. I knew what was coming around the corner. While I wasn't really amazed that my predictions came true, I was amazed that my predictions came true within 30 seconds of my making them. Just ask my wife -- she can't stand watching movies with me.

While a typical American movie watcher who only watches junk that comes out of Hollywood (a movie based on video games, comic books, or a remake of something from 30 years ago) might have been shocked by some of the things that happen, I think someone who indulges in Asian films will also see what's coming, and where things are going.

While, as another reviewer mentioned, the ending leaves you scratching your head and screaming, I was a little lost about the ending. I won't go into details, but I'll just say that I didn't understand the turn of events, and wonder if it is even physically possible for the movie to have ended that way.

All in all, very good acting, and was pretty enjoyable, but if you're looking for a feel-good movie, don't watch this one.

A very interesting original screenplay written by a director.

A new perspective of crime and punishment. A grey perspective. Definitely one of the most interesting films I have watched in 2017 though the direction is not outstanding. Deserving of the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Good performances and symbolism (Lady-Macbeth-like washing of hands, white bedsheets and ghost images).

I expected this to be better. With an almost 7/10 IMDB rating and 84/100 Metascore, i had high expectations. But i was mildly disappointed. It's by no means a bad movie, actors did a very good job, story was interesting, there were some exciting twists and i was very curious to see where it goes. It started slow but as it was progressing, pace got better and there was not a boring minute during the second part.

However, i needed more explanations. I appreciate Japanese subtlety/terseness, it's not like i want for the movies to spoonfed me, but the ending was too abrupt and unsatisfying. I won't say much in order to avoid spoilers but i didn't watch a 2 hours heavy drama for an ending like this. As another reviewer said, this movie almost feels unfinished.

And i didn't get convinced about the motives of one character. The whole movie is based upon unstable foundation. This character could do a lot of things in order to satisfy their unresolved issues. This specific action makes no sense.

So, i don't recommend it but i can say it's a good movie which many cinephiles will like it, even love it.

"Harmonium" is a Drama movie in which we watch a man who just released from prison starts living and working for a family. His presence there will change the balance of the family and problems that need to be solved will occur.

I found the movie interesting despite that it was a bit slow. The plot was simple but very interesting and the direction which was made by Kôji Fukada who is also the writer, it was very good and he presented very well both the plot and his main characters from different aspects. This had as a result to better understand them and relate to them in some occasions. The interpretations of Mariko Tsutsui who played as Akié, Tadanobu Asano who played as Yasaka and Kanji Furutachi who played as Toshio were equally good. All in all, I have to say that "Harmonium" is an interesting movie and you will understand it if you just give it some time and be patient.