Maborosi
Maborosi no hıkari
Japan
1995
110 Min
Color
1.85:1
Japanese
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
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.
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..
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
-
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.
-
-
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
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
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
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
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
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
Lists
Displaying 5 of 185 lists.
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