Wasurerarenu hitobito

Saw this at a foreign film festival. Although it was 9 years ago, the movie still remains clear in my mind. The movie shows the War in the Pacific from the Japanese grunt point of view, something I had not seen before, but now done excellently by Letters from Iwo Jima. The flashbacks are not the main part of the movie, but do an excellent job of establishing the setting for how the characters respond to life events in modern Japan. The horrible manipulation of the raw emotions of the elderly woman are painful to watch, yet such things are happening every day and it is good to see them displayed so honestly. The movie also shows that even in old age, love can strike in the strangest of places and what a powerful force it is to change lives. I still have the ticket stub from this movie, because I wanted to ensure I remembered the title so I could buy it someday. The ending is the ultimate revenge fantasy done with honor. It was refreshing to see such a scene done without a stereotypical Hollywood feel good ending.

This film is so very rich. A way to understand the tribulations of old age and the mentality of the WWII-generation in today's Japan, as well as the absolute obedience demanded of wartime survivors and the cult-like way of extortion-companies to control their members. Along with the quiet build-up and the intelligent flash-back management, the symbolic really moved me.