Japanese documentarian Hirokazu Kore-eda made his first dramatic feature with this austere drama, which recalls the visual and narrative style of Yasujiro Ozu. Yukimo (Makiko Esumi) is married to Ikuo (Tadanobu Asano), a happy and humble man who loves her very much. While Yukimo and Ikuo are content in their marriage and have a beautiful infant son named Yuichi, Yukimo is haunted by visions of death. She has a recurring nightmare in which her grandmother leaves her home to go to the village of
her birth to die, as Yukimo weeps uncontrollably. Yukimo's sad obsession foreshadows a real tragedy in her life when she wakes one morning to discover that police are at her door -- Ikuo has died after apparently committing suicide along the nearby railroad tracks. Yukimo is shattered and spends several years in solitude, until she meets Tamio (Taketoshi Naito), a widowed fisherman who lives in a nearby village with his daughter. They fall in love, and Yukimo marries him and moves into his home. She begins to find happiness anew, until she returns to her old home for her brother's wedding, which brings back a flood of troubling memories. Maboroshi no Hikari (which translates as "Illusory Light") was a multiple award winner at the 1995 Venice International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
The film, which was made with only natural light, draws the viewer into its spiritual mood with one breathtaking shot after another, as the camera draws back to contemplate Yumiko from afar.
Maborosi is one of those valuable films where you have to actively place yourself in the character's mind. There are times when we do not know what she is thinking, but we are inspired with an active sympathy.
The tale is told in contemplative wide-angle shots; the absence of any spurious, unearned intimacy with the characters makes the climactic scenes profoundly moving.
The film uses natural lighting exclusively, eschewing staged settings as often as possible and keeping some nighttime scenes entirely in the dark, an eerie mirror to Yumiko's wounded heart.
Though the audience always remains at a distance, both physical and emotional, from Yumiko, her sense of loss and her inner journey are made vivid by purely filmic means.
Measured and meditative, the Japanese film Maborosi draws the viewer, without emotional bludgeoning or manipulation, into the experience of a woman who has suffered a devastating personal loss.
I knew nothing about this film before I watched it (rare in itself) and not a whole heap more after it had finished. I don't speak Japanese, so even the title gave nothing away. It's a slow film, a mood piece I guess about the aftermath of a young woman and her child's lives after her partner commits suicide.. Not a
lot happens but its very lovely to look at and watchable in a subtle kind of way.
December 17, 2009
Lesley N
Super Reviewer
It's interesting to compare Hirokazu's first feature with his latest, both of which are concerned with how people mourn and reconcile with the death of family. Still Walking is shot mostly in static medium shots and closeups and relies heavily on dialogue while Maborosi features a great deal of long shots and its power
derives from its gorgeous visuals. I heard that the style of this film was influenced by Hou, and clearly enough there is a similar shot sequence pattern, repetition of shots, and framing. Actually the empty shots sequences are like a synthesis of Ozu's pillow shots plus Hou's formal repitition. The dream prologue seems to be a homage to A Time to Live and a Time to Die. The cinematography starts out fairly ordinary and gets much better, the landscape shots are truly beautiful, and the scenes shot during dusk are eye-popping in their use of shadows.
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