pggirasole

Well, the first impression I had of this movie was like I was watching a Tarantino's work. The opening sequence, as well as the car of Fujishima, reminded me also the Bronson's era action movies often depicting a violent cop as leading character. And this peculiarity made me think as well to the first work of Kitano. So, we have a theme well developed in and outside Japan. But if lonely and abandoned policemen are often depicted as somehow cool, here we have a character that has terrible features and so we cannot side with him. If at the beginning we could understand his pain for the lost of the daughter, the more the movie goes on the more we hate him. And we should say that the real cause of this tragedy is him. Or maybe his blood that is shared by her daughter too as is said in the end by Fujishima himself. Yes, because her daughter too switches from being depicted as a young victim of drug and bullyism to a devil that lead people to death. So a movie that destroys the clichés of classical action movies we named above to which is still a great debtor. Considering then the filming the dark Nakajima's style- yet developed in Confessons- made the atmosphere heavy as the feelings of the lost boys who stand again as the main characters. About music the choices are so good to make feel unease. Think to the psychedelic trance music played at the party or Dean Martin's ending song that adds to this movie a grotesque tone. This last one, then, is also the title of a novel by Natsuo Kirino with the main character very close to Kanako. Overall I consider it a good movie with however just one missing point. That's to say reason of this evil in Nakajima family. I think Nakajima should have explained it more clearly why the father had became so rude and so her daughter. Thinking to a simply cursed bloodline as Macbeth is a too much easy. Finally I found interesting to watch it this year since the snow scene brought me to memory some scenes of "The Hateful Eight" by Tarantino. But also "Old Boy" by Park Chang-wook. Two other masterpieces of violence. Without mercy.

This movie has all the elements to be a perfect Japanese movie usable for a Wstern audience. We have a story about tree sisters living alone in a traditional house facing everyday problems like many Ghibli productions, trains in the mountains, funerals as in the "Departures", little restaurant and cherry blossoms. However here we have an opposite narration compared to the movies of Ozu that made us fall in love with that absolutely Japanese simplicity as well unexpressed depth of emotions inside them. In other words, the beginning of those black and white masterpieces was one of familiar tranquility. A tranquility then threatened and finally restored. Let's think to "Tokyo Monogatari" in which at the end the old mother went back to the village where the younger daughter waits for her. Or the old father giving her daughter as spouse to another house at the end of "Sanma no aji". So there the key was finding the harmony. Like the regular sound of wood made by a bamboo fountain in a Japanese garden. Here in "Our little sister" we start from a situation of familiar disorder and in the end nothing changes so much. The hardships of the three sisters remain the same. Sachi, the older one, still leads all the house and the garden by herself. Yoshino, the lovable middle one, still looks for a new boyfriend whit out stopping the habit of drinking alone. Chika, the little one, still date with his naif boyfriend. But in the middle of all this something happened. They accepted in their lives the young sister Suzu, born after their father divorced. This young girl brought to their life a moment of happiness as well hope to going on to what they were doing. Suzu didn't change their life. Is not what can be called "a familiar earthquake". She should be compared nothing more to a blow of spring wind refreshing the house of the three sisters. This is another great difference from past production. We don't have strongly deep feelings. The sisters lives the joy of everyday. Somebody criticize Koreeda for this aspect accusing him of making a movie of good atmosphere and not of emotions. However family has changed. Japan has changed. The three sisters here stands for the contemporary Japan with low birth rate and feared by the earthquake of 2011. A Japan concerned more to what is going on today then to what can happen tomorrow. So we find ourself on the other side to the society growing fast, sometimes too much, in the Ozu's productions where smoking chimneys made their comparison a lot of times. The end show us this idea more clear. The four girls looks over the sea on a shore while speaking about their future without having great expectations. We find no more girls waiting for their boyfriends while practicing on surf as in Kitano's "A scene at the sea". A masterpiece filmed in the highest economic welfare of Japan of the late 80es. In Koreeda's movie we find contemporary girls simply hoping their everyday life can be as always was until then. With hardships but also joy. Without concerning too much about past,that is to say family and father, and future,or marriage and work. Paradoxically a contemporary return to the simplicity of "mono no aware". The medieval Japanese aesthetic principle of enjoy what is short-lived. As the cherry blossoms. As the windy teenage pureness of Sachi. The little sister that brings happiness.

When we think about US or Europe we cannot avoid thinking of a so called melting pot culture. Nowadays as a matter of fact many foreigners, once immigrants, refugees or simply people who wanted to change the place they lived, are making new our traditions, societies and economies. Sometimes they restored what was lost. This happens since people are living beings and society they create changes as well as and together with them. However another country of the so called developed world seems to be different. A country where a monolithic culture is said to be present. We are speaking about Japan. And if we think this way we are doing a huge mistake. For two main reasons. And this movies make us understand this more clearly. First, Japan has a culture made of an unique syncretism since centuries. Most of the writing as well the Buddhism and the tea arrived from the continent and the modern lifestyle from the West. Maybe nowhere, as in Japan, cultures were so accepted and suited by the people. Second, modern Japanese are traveling around the world as well as many people are visiting Japan for the same many reasons (work, tourism, study). Maybe in this second case the numbers are not so high as in other countries of the West (the 2% according to this movie) but still higher than in the past. This second reason in particular is important since it shows how Japan society is going to change or, if it hasn't already started, need to. People differ as well as cultures. But the feelings are the same. So loving someone and having a family is a natural fact. And a fact that can show a new social perspective, however, that can brings a lot of benefits too. This is what is going nowadays in Japan. A country facing a new reality. Or, in other words, a new challenge. Watching this film we understand that mixed roots families and new born children are rising. They are the so called Hafu or half people, mixed. And this production is about them. First of all this term is not offensive since only Japanese use it and with no racist intention. Then, as this movies explain, many of the hafu raised in Japan prefer living there still trying however to make them more accepted as an unique heritage of experience and point of view in a country facing a lot of problems. As the decreasing of birth rate. In addition, because of their mixed culture of origin they can help mutual understandings between Japan and the rest of the World,necessary in particular in this period of worldwide tension. On the other hand, we witness how Japanese half people raised outside the Land of Rising Sun, can visit it to discover their old heritage while growing up as individuals before going back. Since society is changing accepting the other is a challenge that, if won, can bring a lot of advantages. Japan can do it. As did in the past with cultural traditions. And this movie should make think how important is a new generation not only of Japanese half people but of new individuals that can make a place, in this case Japan, where different roots can be shared and join to create something new. The overall pace of this film is that of a documentary film with the stories of five hafu showing the hardships as well as the moments of happiness they have as any other else. But what makes this movie a good instrument of analysis, as well as a different view of society, is that underlines how the unique heritage this people have, must be considered not an obstacle but and advantage, not only for the themselves, but for all the society. For the future Japan. That, we hope, can be more mixed rooted. More HALF.