In the essay accompanying the Criterion release, Dennis Lim states that Kyohei (the elderly doctor), had been unfaithful to his wife in the past. I never saw this mentioned in the movie, but perhaps something was said that wasn't translated in the subtitles. Can anyone tell me where this topic comes up in the movie?
shareA past infidelity is strongly implied when the old doctor is in the bath talking with his wife about when and why she bought the "Blue Light Yokohama" record. She certainly has a perverse take on the "our song" concept, but I can't decide on the main motivation: whether she was punishing herself by playing it to herself over the years, or planning a revenge on her husband, served extremely cold.
Interesting, so the song that the old lady referred to as "our song" was actually connected to her husband's infidelity. I didn't get that while watching the film. But it shows that she was quite a bitch - torturing that boy who had been saved by her son and also her husband. Great to have such complex characters in films.
After listening to that song on youtube (called "Blue Light Yokohama"), I noticed that it includes a line "aruitemo, aruitemo", which is the Japanese title of the film. Obviously, this is where film got its name. But why would the director name his film after a line in a song? Was the husband's infidelity really such an important element in the film?
Yes, at that time she mentioned that she had Ryo strapped to her back and walked to that woman's house, it is then that she heard him singing it in the room but said she did not want to disturb him. The Doctor's reaction to this is very telling. This woman does not forget anything and playing the record reminds her of his indiscretion.
shareYeah, I thought that he had been unfaithful when I saw that scene too, but it was never brought up again or even referenced to.
I actually forgot about his reaction until I saw this post.
It was referenced again by Ryo's wife. When they were alone in their room, she told him something along the lines, "We all have our own guilty little pleasures, that song is your mother's."
shareTwo other things suggested an affair to me:
1) The wife learns from a New Year's Card that a friend had heard her husband singing karaoke, and when confronted about this, he blames her for opening the card (which she immediately points out was un-sealed, and hence up for grabs as a holiday card). His pointlessly defensive manner suggested hiding something, and anyway shows that he leads some kind of secret life, or does things even his wife of decades is unaware.
2) When the son asks him who accompanies him to soccer games, again the father becomes defensive and churlish.
But I agree with prior comments: the scene in the bath is more telling/revealing.
At the very beginning, the mother is talking with her daughter either about her husband or older men in general and she says something about them losing interest in drink and in women, but not gambling, which makes gambling the worst vice. I took that to mean that when he was younger her husband had been unfaithful. Her description of hearing him singing at a woman's house confirmed that, since if it was a routine doctor's visit, it is unlikely he would be singing.
Knowing that made me suspicious of his relationship with the woman across the street when he became upset when she was taken away in an ambulance. But maybe she was the woman we saw earlier who told him she wanted him with her when she died and she was just an old patient.