Japanese Story - Sue Brooks

inizi a vederlo, ti sembra una commedia sulle incomprensioni, le gaffes, un'avventura nel deserto, a scelta.
poi il film inizia a volare, una piccola grande storia d'amore, gentile, delicata, bella, sincera, sorridente.
poi di cade nel dramma e nel lutto, e anche questa è una parte della storia d'amore.
un film come pochi, un capolavoro di amore che raramente si vede al cinema.
non perdetevelo, soffrirete, ma conoscerete l'amore - Ismaele

…"Japanese Story" never steps wrong in its crucial closing passages, especially in the precise and exact way that Sandy and the widow have a limited but bottomless communication. The mundane details of the undertaker, the coroner, the police and the funeral are like a series of events that are -- wrong. Wrong, all wrong, because Tachibana should not be dead. There is no sense in it. He lost his life in a senseless instant, and brought a horrible finality to a relationship not real enough to support it; it should have ended with a kiss and some tears and a rueful smile at an airport. It imposed enormous significance on their time together, which did not deserve and cannot support such significance. What she feels at the end, I think, is not love for him or sorrow, but a great pity that his whole life should have been wiped away and lost for no reason at all, just like that, carelessly, thoughtlessly, in the middle of things.

The movie wants to record how such things happen, and how they present the survivor with an insoluble challenge: What does Sandy think, how does she behave, what should she feel, what should she do now? Patiently, observantly, it takes her through all of these questions and shows her clumsy but honest attempt to answer them. And gradually the full arc of Toni Collette's performance reveals itself, and we see that the end was there even in the beginning. This is that rare sort of film that is not about what happens, but about what happens then.

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…Without taking anything away from Gotaro Tsunashima, who is solid, there are times when he exists in Toni Collette's shadow. Her work is riveting, especially during the final half-hour. After supporting roles in major motion pictures like The Sixth Sense and About a Boy, she has returned to her Australian roots for this outing, which features arguably the most compelling performance of her career. It's a difficult role because it requires Collette to peel back so many layers, and hit a wide range of notes. The character begins the film cold and distant, but, by the end, we have connected with her inner struggle.

One could argue that the third act slows things down too much. However, considering what the filmmakers are attempting, this is inevitable. The tone is of necessity at variance with that of everything that comes before it. During the final 30 minutes, it's the details that matter. They represent the path that leads to genuine acceptance and understanding of what Sandy is experiencing. The journey of Japanese Story is not complete until the final slow, agonizing steps have been taken.

da qui

Ce petit film australien, présenté cette année à Un certain regard, après un bref passage côté ennui, vous prend aux tripes, en vous faisant partager la douleur de son héroïne principale, Toni Collette (Sixième Sens, Muriel), touchante et juste. Clairement scindé en deux parties, il nous emmène tout d'abord dans le désert australien, dépaysant et peu inquiétant à la fois, familiers des images de dunes et autres garrigues que nous sommes. Jouant à fond la carte de la différence culturel, barrière linguistique oblige, la réalisatrice nous convie à partager les inimitiés entre deux personnages que tout oppose. La rigidité apparente et les codes de bonne conduite d'un côté, la légèreté, la volonté de communiquer et la bonhomie de l'autre, valent rapidement à ce duo, une sympathie assez importante…

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