Mazâ

Not an easy watch by any measure, but this Japanese drama inspired by true stories is uncompromising and raw in so many levels. It explores toxic relationship between a single mother and her young son. At the core, it questions the rights and responsibilities of motherhood and how it can effect an innocent life. The story seems so extreme at times and it's hard to believe that it's based on real events. Even though the whole journey is very depressing but it reaches a somewhat satisfying conclusion.

I'll preface it now for all of you the movie itself is just miserable from start to finish. Every second of it makes you angry that such a woman can be such an irredeemable person. Now I'm not saying that this is a bad movie, in fact its misery and its ability to fire me up is what makes it such a recommended viewing. The actress who plays the mother is so good at just being the most scummy, despicable person. You feel for these kids that she totally uses as props to further her own agenda. I think the hardest part to watch is that her son takes it and keeps taking it time after time as if under some sort of spell. It's so hard to watch a child's innocence being ripped apart by the very person that gave them life and is suppose to protect them and cherish them. It just hurts to watch.

A movie about codependency, neglect, toxic cicles and learned hopelessness. It does a very good job at portraying the ugly side of society, it's so heartbreaking that it makes you want to look away (the same way many characters do during the film). But it's quite slow paced, and because it does show the endless cicles of bad decisions and abuse in a realistic way, by the end of it it felt like I was watching the same scene on a loop.

A very troubled mother travels around Japan with her son and later her new daughter gambling, drinking, sleeping with bad men and avoiding debt collectors. All the time her son seeks stability and education his mother derails his hopes at every turn. A depressing look at co dependency and the spiral of descent which will eventually lead to an unimaginable crime.

The director is sensitive enough to show a family of outcasts (if we can call that human gathering a family), a situation that, although it exists in any society, no country likes to show them in the cinema. Very good performance in general, notably the boy Shuhei. Today's Japanese cinema has succeeded the Italian's in the art of unraveling the complicated life of those forgotten by society.