Maborosi
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Movie Reviews of Maborosi
Movie Review: Deeply Moving, Elegant, and Beautiful
Summary: 5 Stars
The cinematography gives this film more depth and meaning with the medium and long shots of events as they unfold in the lives of a Japanese couple ... Yumiko, her husband, and 3 month old son live in a small apartment in Osaka, evidently very much in love. We are privileged to view their lives in its elegant simplicity. Her husband bicycles to work at a factory nearby. Yumiko and he bicycle together to a nearby restaurant for coffee. Yumiko is haunted by a past event where her grandmother leaves the family to die in her own village ... It was her last wish.
Sadly, Yumiko gets a knock on the door, as several police officers ask about her husband and his job. She is accompanied to the police station where she is presented his belongings. There she is told, he walked in front of an oncoming train, despite its warnings, he kept on walking ... an apparent suicide. She is discouraged from viewing what is left of his body. She is distaught and receives help from a neighbor and her mother ... As time passes, four years go by, and a kindly neighbor becomes match-maker, as her son and she board a train to northern Japan to a small fishing village.
Yumiko partakes of a wedding celebration with her new husband, a haunting beautiful ballad is sung by a male guest as the wedding guests clap out the rhythm. Her new life begins ... The stark beauty of the mountain scenery, the shore, the village, and ocean are superbly filmed. Yumiko's son and stepdaughter explore the coast in breath-taking scenery ... Yumiko is enculturated into the lifestyle of the village. During one haunting scene, a group of villagers walk along a road to the sea coast ... There is a bonfire which could be a funeral pyre for someone. Yumiko is met by her husband as she sobs out her questions, why did he kill himself, what made him do it? Her second husband tells a story about the beguiling nature of the ocean which also calls to fishermen, when they are out fishing alone ... It is the nature of life to sometimes call some people back to the "maborosi" ("the light")... Erika Borsos [pepper flower]
Movie Review: Follow the Light
Summary: 5 Stars
If one is familiar with Kore-eda's later film _After Life_ one already knows that death and memory play key parts in his films. After creating stellar documentaries concerning such subjects as AIDS and what it is like for a Korean man passing himself off as Japanese for decades, Kore-eda created _Maborosi_ a film that takes a close look at the greif caused by losing a loved one.The film starts off by showing a young girl named Yumiko trying to convince her grandmother to return home, however, the grandmother is determined to return home to die. Yumiko is unable to prevent her grandmother from leaving and this weighs on her young mind. Warp twelve or so years later and Yumiko is married to her childhood friend Ikuo and is the mother of a three year old son. Yumiko and Ikuo are far from well off, they live in a very small apartment with incredibly thin walls, but they seem to be decently happy. Well, at least Yumiko seems happy. After her husband brings home his bike and leaves with an umbrella, the next thing we learn is that he was killed walking on the train tracks. A suspected suicide.
Time passes and Yumiko's mother arranges her a marriage with a widower who lives in Kanazawa. Unlike her small apartment, Yumiko and her son move into a large old house with her new husband, his father, and his daughter. Ikuo gets along beautifully with his step-grandfather and step-sister and while it seems Yumiko likes her husband well enough, the shadow of Ikuo is always preasant.
This is a gorgeous film. Kore-eda does a wonderful job depicting the living conditions of a lower working class family and goes on to show ramshackle, but lovely older homes by the sea. Yumiko's husband's home looks incredibly shabby on the outside, but the polished hardwood floors and traditional furniture are extraordinary. Kore-eda also pays close attention to nature by showing the natural beauty of the region.
Movie Review: A POETIC ELEGY ON LIFE & DEATH.
Summary: 5 Stars
This film deserves ten stars not five. Mr. Kore-eda uses natural light, both in nocturnal and diurnal scenes. It is one of the most carefully and beautifully shot films I have ever seen. The lighting and photography in the interior scenes is incomparable and masterful. The scenario is restrained and the acting is absolutely first rate, restrained, understated, powerful -- exactly like the ocean, which functions as one of the symbolic characters in the film. What is the ocean but the unconsciousness of the working mind, the stillness sometimes, the violence sometimes, the tranquility sometimes, the wildness sometimes? In each moment there is a recognition of goodbye, and it may be the final goodbye, it may be the shock of someone leaving and never returning, no matter how much we love them, no matter how much we yearn for them. The loss of someone we treasure. Every element in this film: lighting, cinematography, music, acting, direction, scenario -- all works together as a forceful poem to remind us of the death in life, and the life in death. It is one of the most uplifting and spiritual films I have ever seen, yet it never once preaches about loss and the attempt to restructure a life after such an unendurable loss. There is no religion in this film, it is a film about the spiritual transcendence within ordinary life. This film is an absolutely elegant but deeply felt prayer to affirm the meaning of being alive. Everyone should see this film.Movie Review: "The Sea's Quite Loud" ~ Longing For Yesterday, Contentment With Today
Summary: 5 Stars
Note: The "Product Details" information is incorrect. The film is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.
Synopsis: How does one cope with the suicide of a loved one? Such is the case with Yumiko (Makiko Esumi) leaving her with a three month old son and a myriad of unanswered questions. Yumiko is given a second chance for happiness with a new husband at a new location in a scenic oceanfront community away from the people and places of the past. Unfortunately memories are not so easily left behind. As thoughts of her first husband continue to return to her mind just as the ebb and flow of the ocean returns to the shore she must come to grips with lifes' uncertainties and learn to accept the unacceptable.
Critique: Kore-eda Hirokazu's '97 film `Maborosi' ("a strange light far out to sea") is a subtle, gentle flowing study in light and shadow, loss and fulfillment, life and death. Makiko Esumi is pure poetry in the lead role as the grieving Yumiko gliding silently and elegantly in and out of the shadows like a beautiful apparition. Accompanied by a traditional ethnic soundtrack, many times only a guiet melody of a piano `Maborosi' definitely creates a somber atmosphere that the viewer should be aware of. If you're not in the appropriate mood you won't last long. However if you're in the right mood for restrained, detached melancholy as only the Japanese can do, here it is.
Movie Review: Very good movie
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an honest movie. To me, it's about dealing with tragedies in our lives. The story it tells is about trying to understand why things happen that are full of sadness. It shows it is difficult, if not impossible to "get over" terrible events in our lives. This may not be a good movie for those who have not endured loss of a loved one. It may require some experience with tragedy to appreciate the movie. How else can one be sensitive to another's suffering unless they have experienced the same or very similar pain and sorrow? Maybe this film is trying to do that, to invite everyone to "feel" what it is like to be really confused, lost, and frustrated about some events in our lives. I may be wrong, but the writer of this movie must know the characters very well, know what they're feeling, and have a sense of confusion about why we do certain things that are hard to explain. I appreciate this movie. It helps me to think about my own confusion and why I do the things I do in my life.