This story of four children abandoned in a Tokyo apartment by their mother tried my patience. The oldest child, Akira, was more mature at age twelve than his goofy mother.
I found many scenes that could have lasted but a few seconds went on for what seemed like minutes. For example, there are several scenes of Akira running that just go on and on. The movie could have easily been trimmed by an hour. If the goal of drawing things out was to have the audience suffer along with the kids, then the movie was successful on that count. The effect on me was to lose patience and have the potentially powerful emotional content squeezed out. By sheer force of will I resisted hitting the fast forward button.
It was up to the young actor Yûra Yagira to carry the movie, and he did an admirable job. I imagine it was the director's skill in being able to get Yagira to express emotion through facial expression and body movement. It was interesting to see Yagira physically mature throughout the film and that was cleverly reflected in his character's development. Yagira was a child at the beginning, but was turning into a young man by the end.
The predictability of the story also works against the slow pacing. If you turn four kids loose in a small apartment for the better part of a year with a money supply that has run out, then the result is pretty much inevitable. But any doubt about a conclusion that might have helped keep my attention was removed by a beginning scene that has Akira on a train looking disheveled and wearing a dirty T-shirt with holes in it.
I get that this movie makes a comment on the depressing fact that the impersonality of large cities can allow this kind of situation to go unnoticed, or ignored, for so long. But some scenes stretch belief. Surely when the landlord came in and saw what was happening, she would have taken action. One of Akira's reasons for not going to the police or social services was that he was afraid the family would be split up, but I did not sense great closeness among the kids (each had a different father). Losing a sister was certainly not a step in maintaining family cohesion.
The score often seemed inappropriate, invoking ironic humor when melancholy was called for.
I was impressed with director Koreeda's "Still Walking," but I failed to connect with this movie.
I found many scenes that could have lasted but a few seconds went on for what seemed like minutes. For example, there are several scenes of Akira running that just go on and on. The movie could have easily been trimmed by an hour. If the goal of drawing things out was to have the audience suffer along with the kids, then the movie was successful on that count. The effect on me was to lose patience and have the potentially powerful emotional content squeezed out. By sheer force of will I resisted hitting the fast forward button.
It was up to the young actor Yûra Yagira to carry the movie, and he did an admirable job. I imagine it was the director's skill in being able to get Yagira to express emotion through facial expression and body movement. It was interesting to see Yagira physically mature throughout the film and that was cleverly reflected in his character's development. Yagira was a child at the beginning, but was turning into a young man by the end.
The predictability of the story also works against the slow pacing. If you turn four kids loose in a small apartment for the better part of a year with a money supply that has run out, then the result is pretty much inevitable. But any doubt about a conclusion that might have helped keep my attention was removed by a beginning scene that has Akira on a train looking disheveled and wearing a dirty T-shirt with holes in it.
I get that this movie makes a comment on the depressing fact that the impersonality of large cities can allow this kind of situation to go unnoticed, or ignored, for so long. But some scenes stretch belief. Surely when the landlord came in and saw what was happening, she would have taken action. One of Akira's reasons for not going to the police or social services was that he was afraid the family would be split up, but I did not sense great closeness among the kids (each had a different father). Losing a sister was certainly not a step in maintaining family cohesion.
The score often seemed inappropriate, invoking ironic humor when melancholy was called for.
I was impressed with director Koreeda's "Still Walking," but I failed to connect with this movie.