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Like the revered Yasujiro Ozu, the prolific Kiyoshi Kurosawa (best known for supernatural horror films such as Pulse) here uses the microcosm of family to reflect a changing Japanese society. A bottled message cast from the shores of an economy whose implosion precipitated our own, Kurosawa's film centers on Ryuhei (Teruyuki Kagawa), a 46-year-old middle manager for a healthcare equipment company who learns that his entire department is being outsourced to China. To some, the last act's upheaval is the point at which the film jumps the shark, devolving from a contemplative family tragedy into an unclassifiable hybrid of hostage drama and apocalyptic dark comedy. Yet it is precisely here that the already considerable beauty of this unlikely recession-era tonic grows deeper and more personal, as something like hope arrives in the guise of chaos--and we, like the characters on screen, perk up our heads to glimpse it. In Japanese with subtitles.
Mondays-Sundays. Starts: May 29. Continues through June 4, 2009
Mondays-Sundays. Starts: May 29. Continues through June 4, 2009
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