Kore-Eda Hirokazu returns to his favorite theme, family. After Nobody Knows, his previous film where he followed a fatherless family of children abandoned by their mother, he explores, with his new film Still Walking, another kind of family drama.
Still Walking begins on a bright summer day in Yokohama, Japan. An apparently common family is brought together at the parent’s house to commemorate the fifteenth anniversary of the eldest son’s death. Like a documentary, you follow the different members of the family and the powerful links that bind them together: the sister cooks with her mother, the brother has a dead-end discussion with his father, the children try to break a watermelon, and the short moment of the meal where everybody comes together around the table.
There is also this relevant boy, son of the widow who married the younger brother, Ryoto, who observes everything carefully; his interpretation draws the metaphor of the film, a delicate mix of melancholy, humour and poesy. Through the eyes of this young boy, Hirokazu looks at each character in a subtle way. Thus, you feel as though you are strolling round the house and meeting the rough father, a former respected doctor, who makes you smile when he tries to find someone to inherit the family practice; his wife, who hints at her true feelings while always remaining in the boundaries of courtesy. Hirokazu captures the intimate exchanges between these two mainstays of the family and their children. Ryoto does not look forward to visiting his parents and you easily understand why when the mother is angry with him marrying a widow, a “second-hand” woman. His father criticizes his art restoration job, whereas his sister Chinami appears beyond reach of the family conflicts and does not receive any criticism. The deceased brother, Junpei, is always among them through the sadness of the mother who refreshes his grave with water, the regrets of the father who wanted him inherit the family business, the sister who speaks of him with detachment, and the visit of the child which he saved from drowning, the cause of his death -the child as a lightness to the sad story by making everybody laugh because of his corpulence and dirty socks…
Hirokazu began this film right after his mother’s death, and the main themes of Still Walking -death, memory, time, family, and conflicts- are definitely melancholic. He handles the tough subject matter with simplicity and lightness, cleverly blending deeply serious considerations with light and frivolous images. Still Walking is a beautiful film, a simple and subtle poem.
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