Excellent movie


Just had the pleasure of watching this tonight after anticipating it for a few weeks now. This film has so much depth and observation into human nature and depression as a disease. The tension and angst in the father's facial expressions and actions is never forced but seems very natural and real. I loved it--it didn't stray into the self-pity of the characters often seen in American cinema. It was true to the way a situation like this would pan out; people being severely affected by the loss of the breadwinner's job and questioning their family dynamic. The young son as a potential musician was also a refreshing subplot, mixed in with the melancholy feeling of much of the film. A fantastic film.

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I agree with this and would add that having the father as a victim of "downsizing" only sparked a crisis in an already dysfunctional family. The father was already unhappy with/anxious about his job, the mother was already subconsciously hating her husband's authoritarian tendencies, Takeshi was already questioning the usual trajectory for Japanese youths, and Kenji already had a yearning his father denied.

[Spoilers] One of the things I liked about this film was that it put this fractured family back together in a believable way.

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Just seen it & haven't had time to write a review but I liked it an awful lot. I thought it was well observed, deeply touching & fabulously well acted. It might seem unfair to single out one performer but I was really was impressed by the actress playing the housewife. And I loved the typically absurdist Kiyoshi touches not least the moment where the wife & her husband meet unexpectedly in the shopping mall & then the film flashes back to three hours earlier to tell us just how the wife arrived at the mall.

Mai Yamane! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD83P-vn5JI&feature=related

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There's something so pleasing in the later dinner at the table scene.

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