Film: Aruitemo aruitemo ("Still Walking")
Aruitemo aruitemo ("Still Walking"), directed by Kore-Eda Hirokazu and starring Abe Hiroshi, is a thoughtful and intimate portrait of a family negotiating both the past and the present as they gather on the anniversary of the eldest son's death. So beautiful.
I've really been struggling with how to put my reaction to this film into words. It's beautifully filmed and filled with lovely moments and a wonderful sense of familial continuity. The loss of a loved one looms over nearly every character in some way, but that loss is balanced by the idea that loved ones are never completely gone, they are a part of you. The rituals of remembrance serve to maintain a bond to the past while also reinforcing the bonds within a family. I love the film's simplicity and its complexity - one the surface, it is "only" about a family coming together for a rare gathering, engaging in conversation, sharing food preparation and meals, clashing, bonding, laughing, criticizing. While it has no climactic moment, the depth of each character, of meaning in silence and gesture, expression and comment - all of these things illustrate the intricacies of the characters and their relationships with one another, their prejudices and disappointments, their pettiness and also their generosity and kindness. It's a quiet film, but I think it stays with you. I really enjoyed it.