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Maborosi

Maborosi no hıkari

Japan

1995

110 Min
Color
1.85:1
Japanese
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
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DIR Hirokazu Kore-eda

EXEC Yutaka Shigenobu

PROD Naoe Gozu

SCR Yoshihisa Ogita, Teru Miyamoto

DP Masao Nakabori

CAST Akira Emoto, Midori Kiuchi, Naomi Watanabe, Gohki Kashiyama, Tadanobu Asano, Takashi Naitô

ED Tomoyo Oshima

PROD DES Kyôko Heya

MUSIC Chen Ming Chang

Venice (Competition): Best Director, OCIC Award - Honorable Mention, Vancouver (Dragons & Tigers): Award for Young Cinema, Toronto, Chicago (International Competition): Gold Hugo

Synopsis

From the acclaimed director of After Life and Nobody Knows, Hirokazu Kore-Eda, comes the story of a woman deeply troubled by the notion that she brings death to people close to her. Already battling guilt since the age of 12 when her grandmother died, Yumiko’s life is shattered when her husband commits suicide for no apparent reason. After spending several years in solitude, Yumiko remarries. She begins to find happiness anew, until she returns to her old home for her brother’s wedding. A flood of troubling memories begins to haunt her, as she begins her odyssey to search for meaning in the surrounding beauty of the countryside.

Director

Original

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at TV Man Union. Sneaked off set to film Lessons from a Calf (1991). His first feature, Maboroshi no hikari (1995), based on a Teru Miyamoto novel and drawn from his own experiences whilst filming August Without Him (1994), won jury prizes at Venice and Chicago. The main themes of his oeuvre include memory and loss, death and loss, and the intersection of documentary and fictional narratives. —IMDb 

Wall

Displaying 4 of 19 wall posts.
Picture of Trolley Freak

Trolley Freak

18Feb13

After making his name as a documentarist, Kore-eda uses the techniques of non-fiction to eye-catching effect in his debut feature. The story revolves around a young woman who remarries and moves to a fishing village after the suicide of her husband. The pace is sedate and the actors blend into the background of each carefully composed scene as the camera keeps a discreet distance. The result is an Ozu-like serenity..

Picture of Bitė

Bitė

9Feb13

time can make the pain less sharp and more bearable, but it never really stops and there's no ocean able to wash it away

Falderal and Johnde like this

  • Picture of Slow Immersion

    Slow Immersion

    16Feb13

    Indeed. I think this is one of the greatest examples of a melancholic film. I just adore the atmosphere, mood, and of course thematically. This was definitely the peak of his work.

  • Picture of Falderal

    Falderal

    30Mar13

    Greatest summation of this film, ever.

  • Picture of Bitė

    Bitė

    1Apr13

    thanks :)

Picture of Falderal

Falderal

21Dec12

Life is pure misery. But that moment... raspberries on windows, coffee in a horrendously small shop, a meaningless ride home in the middle of the night... That moment... What else does this horrible existence offer?

Linda Crisan and 7 others like this

Cedric, Bitė, Johnde, eric dupont, H. K. ‡, Gustavo., InsertOzuReferencehere

Picture of pandakuma

pandakuma

10Dec12

poetic cinematography. every single shot has story to tell.

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 496 fans.

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.

Maboroshi no hikari [Maborosi/Phantom Light], 1995

By Acquarello on January 23, 2008
An elderly woman (Kikuko Hashimoto) abstractedly walks down the sidewalk of a high traffic bridge, as she often does, determined to return to her childhood village. Her granddaughter chases after her
read article

Maborosi

By Roger Ebert on January 23, 2008
`Maborosi" is a Japanese film of astonishing beauty and sadness, the story of a woman whose happiness is destroyed in an instant by an event that seems to have no reason. Time passes, she picks up some
read article

Maborosi

By Scott Tobias on January 23, 2008
The lingering pain of inexplicable tragedy, and how it swells and recedes in a person’s everyday life, is the subject of Maborosi, Hirokazu Koreeda’s profoundly affecting meditation on loss. Popular fashion
read article

A Conversation With "Maborosi" Director, Hirokazu Kore-Eda

By Mark L. Feinsod on January 23, 2008
“Maborosi”, the first feature film by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda, begins with a 12-year old Osakan girl named Yumiko watching as her grandmother leaves to return to the village of her childhood
read article

Talking to Hirokazu Kore-eda

By Cleo Cacoulidis on January 23, 2008
Visually intense, compassionate, and displaying an unblinking attention to detail — no matter how ordinary — the films of director Hirokazu Kore-eda are more aptly described as cine-poems. “I’m interested
read article

Lists

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Reviews

Displaying 2 of 2

Good :)

By Benoît on October 24, 2010

Dès son premier film, Kore-Eda Hirozaku s’est attaqué au thème de la mort et à la réaction des gens lorsqu’elle touche un proche. Dans Maborosi, c’est avant tout le thème du suicide qui y est abordé…  read review

Untitled

By Kenji on March 5, 2009

Something i prepared before:

The debut feature of Kore-eda (one-time documentarist and director of the widely admired “Afterlife” and “Nobody Knows”) is one of a small, precious number of films…  read review

Forum

Displaying 2 discussion topics.

MABOROSI (Hirokzau Kore-eda, 1995)

32 posts by 14 people 11 months ago

Your Favourite Kore-eda Film?

6 posts by 5 people almost 2 years ago