I just saw a press screening of director Hashiguchi Ryôsuke's (橋口亮輔監督) first film in 6 years and felt I had to scribble something down. Everybody's been waiting for his return since Hush!, released in Japan in 2002. After seeing Gururi No Koto (『ぐるりのこと』）I can safely say it's definitely been worth the wait. Wow...Gururi No Koto (which translates to something like "The Things Around You") is the story of a married couple, spanning ten years from the early 90s to the early noughties. Lily Franky, famed novelist of Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad, illustrator, actor and all around renaissance man plays the husband and Kimura Tae (木村多江) plays the wife. Hashiguchi is a director who likes to rehearse with actors, usually a luxury in Japan as talent schedules are so tight, and boy does it pay off in spades. This is a phenomenally naturalistic depiction of one couple's journey through life. It is an intimate epic.
The film clocks in at 140 minutes (5m longer than Hush!) but it's necessary to develop the rich characters and create the tapestry of beauty and ugliness that forms the backdrop of their lives. Making Franky's character a courtroom sketch artist is a stroke of genius, as he's witness to some of the most famous trials in modern Japanese history, capturing the zeitgeist at different points in the story. The names and events are slightly changed, but it's obviously child killer Miyazaki Tsutomu, played with chilling authenticity by Kase Ryô, the Tokyo subway sarin gas attacks, and Osaka school massacre perpetrator Takuma Mamoru.
Mark my words -- this film will get some very prestigious festival slots and win awards.
Related Link: Eigapedia's page on the film (nice wiki -- didn't know it existed).
This post comes to you courtesy of the free Wi-Fi at the very comfortable cafe/restaurant Respekt in Shibuya.
3 comments:
Whoa.That's a great news.
Ever since I saw 20歳の微熱,I'm his fan.(I remeber Donald Richie wrote very passionate review on this film and so was late Yodogawa Nagaharu.Both of them,we know are not heterosexual)
渚のシンドバッドwith pop diva,Hamasaki Ayumi stars,was also a good film.
Although Ayu's act was not bad at all,she chose to delete her participation of that film from her official biography.
Aceface
hush! can be had on disc from America - I have it, yet to watch it - and I believe one of the principal cast may have
a directorial debut around at the moment that's worth looking into.
Ryosuke Hashiguchi is one of my favourite Japanese directors. Along with Hideo Nakata. But these do make completely different kinds of movies. While Nakata sticks to horror, Hashiguchi is magnificent in depicting human's life. I adore his 'Hush!' movie, I love his 'Like Grains of Sand' and I'm pretty disappointed by his 'Fever of the 20 years old'. But still, he is a real genius. And I'm looking forward to seeing his new work.
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