What is your favorite Koreeda Hirokazu film?

Ahhhhhhhhhhh… Lucky.
Any generous Kore-eda fans wanna fly me out to New york for this? (Didn’t think so)

Only seen Nobody Knows, saw snippets of Maborosi, really want to see Still Walking

I wouldn’t mind a meet up. Currently, I’ve got tiks to the opening film: Still Walking and Distance. I’m still figuring out if I can get back to the city for the docus. the following week, since i’ll be back in school at that time. It’ll be nice to have a coterie centered around Koreeda.

Damn you NY’ers

I saw Aruitemo Aruitemo/Still Walking last night at the BAM for the first time and it was a real treat! I have to say this is a stunning follow-up to Nobody Knows (2004). Just like the film Still Walking, director Koreeda Hirokazu was very down-to-earth and meek. While he introduced the film he revealed that he made this film as a memento for his mother. His mother had passed away two years before it was made and while she was still alive, he and sister took turns taking care of her daily (and in way, this is his most biographical film). During that time he kept a notebook of all of their conversations which eventually shaped into the script. Even when an audience member asked whether the slow-paced nature of his films was intentional or not, he simple responded that he never plans to make his films that way. Alternatively, it’s the natural rhythm he is used to and he wants give non-native speakers time to relax their eyes from the subtitles! Can’t wait for Distance! I have more to say but I need give the film some more thought.

Oh, it must have been beautiful to observe every moving frame of Still Walking on the magical screen. And thinking of Distance: it will be THE experience, I think.

The misty scene from Distance at the lake on the morning before everyone goes back to their lives—magical experience.

Dare mo Shiranai was unbelievable on the big-screen. You can’t truly “feel” this film unless you see it on the screen. I teared on and off. And once again he was very humble in his Q&A (and sadly he has to leave on a 5:00AM flight to promote his new film in Japan). I talked to him a bit with my poor Japanese and he gave me an autograph. I’m dying to see Distance tomorrow. Hopefully my friend can drive me from school to see the docus on the 31st and 1st. Are the ones you’re seeing Dan? Can’t wait for the sequence mentioned above.

Nobody Knows.

>Are the ones you’re seeing Dan?

Maborosi is by far his best film. I am not fond of his latest films at all. Distance i would consider being second but it is still far from Maborosi.

Maboroshi is bad ass on the big screen.

Since some film festivals have gone and passed, anyone got around to Still Walking yet? I feel the need to discuss the ending which I disliked pretty much.

Really, what in particular bothered you? Was it the transitory narration at the end?

Yes, the part where the voiceover starts onwards. I thought the film could be much better if it ended at one of the few great moments a little earlier.

I agree with you in some respect that the narration was a bit abrupt and changed the tone to some extent. But looking back at the film now, I don’t think any other ending would be more suitable. Koreeda has stated this film to be his most Japanese and I can understand why he would say so. For the duration of the film all the family members gather together for the anniversary of Junpei’s death, but behind their backs they consistently bad-mouth each other. In Japanese society this is almost customary (we’re are known for hiding our true feelings) and Ryota (Abe Hiroshi) does the same. When he finally leaves his parents his initial reaction is relief but eventually he reconsiders. Maybe you feel the narration is not the best way to show his regrets and resentments but I think it shows the greater distance between Ryota and his parents (since he’s offscreen). Like most of Koreeda’s films, the characters he presents always seem to deal with this Japanese concept of ‘mono no aware’ – the pathos of things and although they develop a greater understanding of this pathos they never seem to be able to move beyond it (just like Naruse’s characters).

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see the documentaries since I had to move back to school. Did you seem them Dan?

I like Nobody Knows the best followed by After Life and then Maborosi. Haven’t seen his other films yet.

Nobody Knows blew me away at the cinema,
but Still Walking and After Life are right there on top.
I still wanna watch Maborosi, but I haven’t found the right moment yet.
I didn’t enjoy Distance, though. Is that normal? xD

It’s not crazy to dislike it. I had trouble with it too at the BAM retro. It’s certainly the most experimental of Koreeda’s films. Then again, I missed the first 15 minutes of the film and was lethargic that day. I would definitely watch it again.

One day I’m tattooing those characters across my chest.

I just watched STILL WALKING.

9/10

Really gorgeous. Beautifully done. A family drama in the spirit, if not in the style, of Yasujiro Ozu. Bittersweet story.

This is my favorite kind of film; at my age, 47, I find I really appreciate movies whose plots are drawn right from life… which say something about people and how they interrelate.

Just finished AIR DOLL and NOBODY KNOWS .

This is some gorgeous filmmaking… exploring people in situations with no special FX or shock value or artsy nonsense. Just good mature filmmaking with a heart and a vision and humanistic integrity.

I am newly a disciple of Hirokazu!

Influenced obviously by Ozu, but also by Wim Wenders and Truffaut, i’d say.

…..and by Eric Rohmer.

I’m impressed that someone still wants to make films like this…. seeing as they’re not trendy and not quite the fashion in arty circles at present.

Maborosi is for me the finest film of the last 2 decades and more, pipping Abraham Valley. Stillness, beauty, mystery. He’d done documentaries but what a mature film debut. Truffaut never came close to that level, Wenders lost his way completely, sadly Koreeda hasn’t matched it since but then that would have been pretty tough. Still Walking is quite Ozu-esque too, and impressive, but lacking the accumulated emotional power

Distance is the most unseen/underrated masterpiece of the last 4 decades, and this is SO sad. I hope some company will release his docs at some point. About time.

Any one know where can I see (preferably rent versus buy) DISTANCE in the U.S.? It’s entirely absent from Netflix.

I watched MABOROSI last night and thought it was devastatingly lovely and melancholy and moving. It is tied, so far, for my favorite Koreeda film alongside STILL WALKING. The only other one I’ve seen is NOBODY KNOWS, which I quite liked though it had it’s weaknesses, certainly.

I’ve noticed though, in NOBODY KNOWS and MABOROSI, that the greatest visual cinematic moments, in my opinion, come nearer to the end … such as, the airport burial in the former mentioned, and the funeral procession and the fire at the sea, in the latter.

Maybe After Life. But they keep shifting. After a while it was always a different film. Definitely a phenomenal filmmaker.

Agree with DAN8700: DISTANCE is Kore-eda’s hidden gem.

Plenty of people will find this movie boring, no doubt. But it is that very “boring”, snakelike quality—— like in Tarkovsky’s SLACKER or Wenders’ ALICE IN THE CITIES—— that lulls the viewer into the most intimate hypnotic, dreamlike, meditative state.

Not to mention the footage of unspoiled Japanese nature, and the exploration of Japan’s problems with cults and suicides amongst young adults…