In Genpin, Naomi Kawase casts a gentle and serene look at natural childbirth and delivers a visual meditation on the unshakable bond between mother and child. The result is a lucid and moving documentary that captures the splendour of labour with intelligence, emotion and delicacy.
As if it were a companion piece to the critically acclaimed Mogari no mori (The Mourning Forest), where Kawase was contemplating the strong connection between humans and the forces of nature, Genpin reflects on motherhood and the miracle of birth. Spending a year in the “House of Birth,” the clinic where Doctor Tadashi Yoshimura attended over 20,000 natural childbirths in the span of forty years, Kawase follows the life of women of various social extractions in their last months of pregnancy.
Immersed in nature and far from the turmoil of city life, the clinic hosts pregnant women who are protected by the soothing guidance of Doctor Yoshimura. When the time of birth comes, delivery seems to happen without much effort in a lightly painful, almost pleasant experience. Advocating the beauty of nature and of lives delivered outside of a hospital’s structure, Kawase shows how the process of repossessing childbirth, without being dependent on medical intervention, can be highly satisfying for a woman.
Quietly awesome, Genpin is endowed with subtle charm and almost magical appeal. A documentary in its form and a peaceful meditation at its heart, the film has a deep spiritual soul that contrasts with the earthy physicality of bodies portrayed while giving birth. Creating a new form of visual document, Kawase records these events and challenges the viewer with her signature empathic style, conveying what the real experience of pregnancy is and reaching out to the audience with a moving and subtly powerful sensibility.
Genpin is inspired by the words of Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu: “The valley spirit never dies. It is named the mysterious woman.” Fittingly, the film is enigmatic yet simply natural. –TIFF
Naomi Kawase was born in 1969, at a time when Japanese cinema was thriving with vigorous underground filmmaking, the initial streak in Kawase’s own young career. While studying photography at the Osaka School of Visual Arts, she started to make films as part of a workshop: “I focus on that which interests me” (1988), a personal symphony of the city, “The concretization of these things flying around me” (1989), a silent study of the homeless, "Presently (1989), a poetic piece visualising the 4 elements (water, air, fire and earth). After graduating in 1989, she taught for 4 years.
In 1992, she made Embracing, a medium length 16mm feature in which she sets up to find her biological father (Naomi was brought up by her grandparents after her parents’ marriage broke up). In 1993, she cast her documentary eye on a striking boy-meets-girl fiction in White Moon. She dedicated her following film Katatsumori (94) to her grandmother. This film and the next one… read more
Contemplative doc takes a look at a natural childbirth clinic in Japan, where childbirth becomes and almost spiritual experience. There is an almost mystical quality to the film, as it makes beautiful ties between motherhood and the natural world. The ever present sounds of cicadas and wind turn the film into a hushed, reverent portrait of motherhood that is nearly transcendent.
