Hiroshi Abe as Ryota and Taiyo Yoshizawa as his son Shingo in a scene from the Kore-eda Hirokazu film After the Storm.
Hiroshi Abe as Ryota and Taiyo Yoshizawa as his son Shingo in a scene from the Kore-eda Hirokazu film After the Storm.
Whanganui Film Society's next screening is After the Storm (Umi yori mo mada fukaku), a 2016 offering from Japanese director Kore-eda Hirokazu.
"Kore-eda Hirokazu's films are always a favourite among festival and film society-goers, and this one should be no exception," says Whanganui Film Society president Helen Marie O'Connell.
Thischaracteristically worldly, affectionate and wryly amusing family drama from Hirokazu centres on handsome, charming Ryoto (Hiroshi Abe), a formerly successful novelist who pines for his ex-wife Kyoko (Yoko Maki) and his 12-year-old son Shingo (Taiyo Yoshizawa).
Working as a private detective to support a serious gambling habit, he seems an unlikely prospect for re-marriage, but when they are stranded together at his mother's home during a typhoon, he sees a chance to reunite.
Reviewer Deborah Young of the Hollywood Reporter described the film as "bittersweet".
"As sweet as a ripe cherry at first glance, it has a rocky pit, as viewers who bite deeply will find out…
"This bittersweet peek into the human comedy has a more subtle charm than flashier films like the director's child-swapping fable Like Father, Like Son but the filmmaking is so exquisite and the acting so calibrated it sticks with you."
After the Storm: Monday, October 29 at 7 pm. Davis Theatre, Whanganui Regional Museum, Watt St. Memberships available online at nzfilmsociety.org or at the venue.
