Sandome no satsujin – The Third Murder

Director Kore-eda Hirokazu's more recent films have been family focused (After the Storm, Like Father Like Son, Our Little Sister) exploring broken relationships and human frailty. With The Third Murder however, Kore-eda has returned to much larger questions of life's purpose and what it means to be a human being, in the vein of Air …

Umi yori mo mada fukaku – After the Storm

Another slice of domestic Japanese life seen through the lens of director Hirokazu Kore-eda. In many ways this is nothing new from the Japanese director, yet at the same time it is a different domestic arrangement which provides the backdrop for the narrative. Uncontrollable natural elements force together a broken family and we end up …

An – Sweet Bean

An excellent example of why I enjoy watching films from other cultures so much. The story starts in a conventional manner, then takes a turn which reveals things about Japanese history (recent at that) of which I was not aware. It also throws in some interesting culinary information too. The lives of a solitary chef, an …

Our Little Sister (Umimachi Diary)

Subtle, gentle, delightful and insightful - Kore-eda Hirokazu manages to present the delicate intricacies of family life in which on the surface not much happens, but beneath that, each family member learns something about herself and her sisters, without huge revelations or tantrums. Kore-eda's last two films, I Wish and Like Father, Like Son focussed on …