{"id":426,"date":"2009-04-26T15:37:34","date_gmt":"2009-04-26T19:37:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/1morefilmblog\/?p=426"},"modified":"2014-07-27T21:00:47","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T02:00:47","slug":"still-walking-koreeda-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/1morefilmblog\/still-walking-koreeda-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Still Walking (Koreeda, 2008)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Koreeda's
Koreeda\u2019s new film was my favorite at the Toronto International Film Festival<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Here\u2019s the thing that\u2019s constitutionally wrong with me\u2013I still don\u2019t get Yazujiro Ozu. Everyone at this year\u2019s Toronto Film Festival kept comparing Koreeda\u2019s newest film to Ozu\u2019s works\u2013other critics I spoke with, audience Q&A participants, even some printed reviews. In one of his sessions with the audience at Toronto, Koreeda suggested somewhat facetiously that his characters were too messy for an Ozu film and that they might be more at home in a film by Mikio Naruse.<\/p>\n

Certainly the film\u2019s premise, a close examination of a family struggling against the weight of social expecations, would make (and has made) fodder for an Ozu film, but for me that\u2019s a bit like calling any examination of doubt Bergmanesque.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in my review of the film (at Looking Closer<\/em>)<\/a>, Koreeda suggested he structured the film around objects. This means that rather than being filtered through any one character, the family\u2019s dynamics are revealed organically and no one character\u2019s experiences are given the impratur of idealization. Certainly, given Koreeda\u2019s admitted inspiration for the film\u2013his own mother\u2019s passing\u2013one would expect Ryota\u2019s (the eldest sone, played by Hiroshi Abe) perspective to dominate the film. The film is neither an indictment nor a celebration of the parents, though. What is surprising\u2013and delightful\u2013about the film is how clear-eyed the portrait of the family is even when the setting for it is a situation that would normally invite excessive sentimentality. Bittersweet is one of the hardest tones to capture, perhaps because we are so cynical that we tend to assume instinctively that it is parody. Koreeda reminds us that emotions that we too often mock (because we find them embarassing or painful) are real and, often, beautiful.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is surprising–and delightful–about the film is how clear-eyed the portrait of the family is even when the setting for it is a situation that would normally invite excessive sentimentality. Bittersweet is one of the hardest tones to capture, perhaps because we are so cynical that we tend to assume instinctively that it is parody. Koreeda reminds us that emotions that we too often mock (because we find them embarassing or painful) are real and, often, beautiful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1555,"featured_media":11351,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,95,16,67],"tags":[121,103],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2008-top-10-top-10-lists","category-elsewhere","category-reviews","category-top-10-lists","tag-hirokazu-koreeda","tag-still-walking"],"yoast_head":"\nStill Walking (Koreeda, 2008)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is surprising--and delightful--about the film is how clear-eyed the portrait of the family is even when the setting for it is a situation that would normally invite excessive sentimentality. 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