Yoji Yamada's 2016 family comedy, What a Wonderful Family! begins with a divorce,, or at least the threat of one: seemingly out of nowhere, Hirata family matriarch Tomiko (Kazuko Yoshiyuki) asks her husband Shuzo (Isao Hashizume) for a divorce on her birthday. Judging by the opening scenes, it's not difficult to see why she wanted to do so: he's a tad chauvinistic, he womanizes, boozes and smokes his way though life, and he would probably win a grumpiest grandpa competition. This leads to a number of comedic situations as the family tries to sort out this new problem.
The story of What a Wonderful Family is simple, but it explores the notion of "family" through a Japanese lens. It asks us what causes a marriage to strain under the stress and it asks us what holds a marriage together for many decades. The Japanese aren't particularly known for their ability to express their feelings, so expressing love, especially for an old couple, may prove to be a problem for some. The film also contrasts the impending divorce with an engagement; Shuzo's youngest son, Shota (Satoshi Tsumabuki) proposes to his girlfriend, nurse Noriko (Yu Aoi) as he prepares to move out of the crowded family house and live independently. We also see how the family structure is patriarchal - while there's much hullabaloo on the grandfather's side of things, no one dares to ask Tomiko what she feels about the whole thing until the climax of the film.
Yamada expertly uses clever staging and his camera to get the most out of his characters. The film's highlight, the family meeting with all the characters in the living room, is a long, extended sequence that's just a delight to watch. Aside from the performances and comedic timing of the cast (Isao Hashizume in particular deserving of praise), there are also things in the background that make you wonder which parts are part of the script and which parts are adlibbed.
There's are obvious references to the classic 1953 film Tokyo Story in this work. Both stories feature an aging couple and their extended family, and perhaps naming a potential daughter in law Noriko is no coincidence either. Yamada reimagined Tokyo Story as Tokyo Family in 2012, and we can see in this film and that remake how the Japanese family has changed since the original Ozu film: an increasingly aging population, parasite singles, both parents working for the sake of their children. Yet despite this, many things such as filial devotion and love between family members stays the same.
A quirky and sometimes even screwball film, What A Wonderful Family is enjoyable from start to finish. With a sequel to the film set to screen this year, Yamada seems to be on the road to making a family movie trilogy of his own.
"Every bean has a story to tell," we hear master artisan Tokue state in Naomi Kawase's 2016 film Sweet Bean. And like those red beans that take time, effort and love to make delicious, the characters in Sweet Bean all have their own stories to tell as well. Naomi Kawase frames her characters in extreme closeup, perhaps trying to find familiarity with these characters. But as the film later shows, Sweet Bean goes into some interesting places as its story evolves, revealing our characters' backstories, their hopes and dreams, heartbreak and regret.
That ties into another theme the film has: of how Japanese society (or any society, for that matter) marginalizes people that they fear, often ignoring the fact that these people, deep down, are the same as they are.
Everyone's favorite Japanese grandma Kirin Kiki is absolutely superb in this film as Tokue. Tokue is damn good at what she does, and lives with dignity and a gentle sense of grace. She touches the lives of the people around her, especially Sentarou, the dorayaki maker who takes her in played by Masatoshi Nagase. The two form an interesting dynamic that is more than a simple employer-employee relationship - it feels like a mother guiding a son desperately in need of direction.
Kawase balances her melodramatic elements well, avoiding an overabundance of sentimentality. Even in its saddest moments, Sweet Bean wears a streak of optimism, urging us to stand with our heads held up high and face challenges head on. Some may criticize the film for being simplistic, but that to me is the film's greatest strength - in its simplicity, it finds a profound beauty in the meaning behind living life that not many films achieve.
No comments:
Post a Comment