Ji ekisutorîmu sukiyaki (2013) Reviews

• 8/10: Slowpaced drama, character study and analogy for the experience as a human being.

  shide_852016-02-10

  •Spoilers are marked out Fluently slowpaced cinematographically capturing by simplicity. Small stories woven together into hitting emotionality surrounding the human experience. The chemistry is there, the dull backdrop with crisp sound is there, the very realistic feeling is there and the message is there. If you are captured by the human experience this will reverberate with you. It might even do so if you are just recognising or agreeing with some of the parts of it. There are wonderful cinematic moments in this hidden gem, or rather imitations of life which with the actors who mostly fit like hand in glove make close to real. Short version: If you liked The last life in universe (2003), The eternal sunshine of the spotless mind (2004) or Waiting for Godot (2001) this should be right up your road. This does also strike a tone of resemblance with Mr. Nobody (2009). Pro's • Directing • Chemistry and acting • Script (first you might think it is blunt at the start, that is most likely intentional) • Complexity effortlessly (seemingly) woven into the storyline Con's • Possibly unneeded complexity, though the subplot does ad emotionally SPOILERS BELOW *Noteworthy: The photos in the end which ends the movie on a positive note which is good or bad depending on what you wish to draw from it and how you experience it. The discussion about memories is beautiful, later on in the movie they have a discussion where the analogy of picking up an old book and feeling lost in the plot is to be understood as memories and life. And if you read it through you loose the discomfort. As when they are at the ocean, and Ohkawa is going to throw the crafted piece of wood into the ocean (it's crafted as a crude boomerang), if you set it free it will come back. "It'll come back just fine." You see the motion of casting it as a step in the sand (what is to be perceived as a human inprint on reality), naturally it does not come back around. They stand at the beach, with the sun shining on them and the ocean sounds when the music comes on; "That seems like life. Only one shot and you can't go backward. But it is better that way isn't it (?). Not being able to go back i mean. there is beauty in it." "We have to look into the darkness, the future is dark, because we don't see it right (?). But if we don't look into the darkness we're screwed."

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