Ishi's whimsical, playful take on rural Japanese family life veers from the banal to the surreal. It is an episodic look at the quirks of various family members, but not family life, because each character lives in their own little bubble mysteriously alienated from those around them. There is very little interaction between family members, or anyone else for that matter. Ideas are introduced - Hajime's first love is delicious and hell, Sachiko needs to get her bar skills up, Grandpa had a secret art project - and then just left to wither like persimmons in the Tochigi sun. The film meanders, but goes nowhere. We finish with a sappy montage of all the characters staring at the same sunset, a pat ending belying the lack of characterization or plot.
Yamada's Village of Dreams takes a rural childhood, relates it episodically, to make meaning that resonates universally on themes of nostalgia and loss. This film just whimpers from one slapstick-TV set up to another. Some of the scenes bring a smile to your face, and the photography is flawlessly done, although the one-scene/one-set-up cutting gets a bit monotonous. But you could jumble the scenes in this film in a randomizer and come out with the same amount of meaning and emotional impact. It is all very ho-hum, and drags tediously after the first 90 minutes.
As a writer, Ishi seems best suited to short-form comedy, the experimental kind that dominates late-night Japanese TV. This material should never have been cobbled together into a feature film. Lovely visuals, strong performances, but in the end just a lot of wry smiles and bizarre behaviour adding up to nothing.
Yamada's Village of Dreams takes a rural childhood, relates it episodically, to make meaning that resonates universally on themes of nostalgia and loss. This film just whimpers from one slapstick-TV set up to another. Some of the scenes bring a smile to your face, and the photography is flawlessly done, although the one-scene/one-set-up cutting gets a bit monotonous. But you could jumble the scenes in this film in a randomizer and come out with the same amount of meaning and emotional impact. It is all very ho-hum, and drags tediously after the first 90 minutes.
As a writer, Ishi seems best suited to short-form comedy, the experimental kind that dominates late-night Japanese TV. This material should never have been cobbled together into a feature film. Lovely visuals, strong performances, but in the end just a lot of wry smiles and bizarre behaviour adding up to nothing.