Nihon no higeki

If one is familiar with economy of cinema as a means to create good films then it can be deduced that positive story telling is possible even with just two leading actors in a film. Director Kobayashi Masahiro has based his film "Japan's Tragedy" in Tokyo, Japan-a country where deaths through suicides are not merely treated as sociological problems given the fact that a large section of population is aware of the fact that in Japan suicides take more lives than earthquakes. The film is based upon an actual event related to the misuse of money meant for retired people. Masahiro Kobayashi chose static camera in order to capture the stubbornness with which an old Japanese father deals with his young son. This role has been nicely plated by Nakadai Tatsuya, a famous Japanese actor who has worked in as many as five films directed by Kurosawa Sensei. Although it is rather pessimist in tone, Japan's Tragedy but gives an emotional message that there is still some respect in the minds of Japanese people towards elders in Japanese society.

Japan's Tragedy was one of the few something what findable Tatsuya Nakadai films I hadn't seen, and to highlight a positive, he didn't let me down. He's good as always in the lead role here, even if his character's a bit one-note as far as character dramas go. He plays an old man who's given up on life, after health setbacks and family tragedies, and he locks himself in his room, seemingly to die (threatening he'll take his life if anyone comes in). From there, we get some flashbacks about what led him to make such a decision. The film's probably at its best when it just shows close-ups of Nakadai's character having such thoughts and recollections.

It's otherwise a slow, restrained, stageplay-like film. Outside the acting, the other aspects of Japan's Tragedy are all competent, if a little unremarkable. It's worth it for anyone who's a big fan of the lead actor (there are precious few outright bad films that contain Tatsuya Nakadai), but otherwise probably hard to recommend.