Hirokazu Kore-eda

[yoshimori]

Thanks, FN, for helping MK out.

Just finished watching All the Things .... It's Ishii in his someshadeofblluetokyosky movie mode, and it's of similar quality, iyam. In case anyone's wondering.

[Michael Kerpan]

Thanks, FN, for helping MK out.

It's Ishii in his someshadeofblluetokyosky movie mode, and it's of similar quality, iyam.

I'm sensing this is not necessarily a good thing.

[yoshimori]

I'm sensing this is not necessarily a good thing.

Ha! Well, I myself think there's a lot to like about this new Ishii movie: its awkward rhythms, Nakano Taiga's muted performance, the atypical casting of the secondary characters, lots of beautiful images. And it's way better than the SDAFF's Kore'eda episode! Too bad, though, the actors couldn't pull off the emotionally super-charged ending.

I wouldn't say this one's required viewing, and if you don't like the basic kind of thing the shadesofblue movie is, then this one is unlikely to work for you. Still, since a trailer is worth a thousand reviews, you can quickly decide for yourself:

Here

[yoloswegmaster]

Kore-eda Hirokazu Developing Series and Film for Netflix

Netflix and I are teaming up to create a drama series and a big-budget movie that is different from my previous works. You still need to wait for a bit before they’re finished and delivered to you. I incorporate different elements from those in theater movies and try to create exciting works. Please look forward to them,” he said. “Probably, the scale of the new movie will be different from the movies I’ve made before. Also, the drama series would not be realized if I didn’t collaborate with Netflix.” “I’m not the only director working on the drama right now, I’m responsible for the chief direction as the showrunner, and [will] direct several episodes myself. But this time I try to incorporate young directors and work with them. This is also a big appeal for me to work on this project.”

[Michael Kerpan]

Hoping for something good.

[FrauBlucher]

I started a bit of a Kore-eda journey. And it's been wonderful. I love his understated style much like Ozu which has been mentioned by others. The stories just seem to simmer and keep the narrative compelling, which is the kind of films I gravitate towards.

Anyway, So far I watched (in this order) After Life, Still Walking, Shoplifters and The Third Murder. I have Nobody Knows and Like Father, Like Son in the queue. Where should I go after that?

My fave order at this point...
Still Walking
Shoplifters
After Life
The Third Murder

[artfilmfan]

Maborosi is a wonderful film. See it next.

[therewillbeblus]

The rest of his work that I’ve seen are good but not as good as what you’ve seen (Maborosi, I Wish, After the Storm), with his French film La Vérité quite good and likely my favorite of what’s left. However, your two on deck are probably my two favorites

[Michael Kerpan]

I pretty much "love" all his feature films. I would say you can't go wrong with any of them. I really love The Little Sister (Umimachi Diary) -- but maybe my partiality towards Kamakura and environs plays a role in this. His darkest films are probably Distance and Air Doll (along with Third Murder). Distance is one of the hardest to grapple with -- and really required a prompt second viewing (the day after my first). Hana yori mo naho is often considered sub-par -- but I loved it as a humane and touching commentary/rejoinder to 47 Loyal Ronin/Chushingura. I even loved his documentary on the Okinawan singer Cocco -- but I don't think this has ever shown up in subbed form.

I would note that Kore'eda says he likes Naruse (and was more influenced by him than Ozu). I suspect he has also found inspiration from Hiroshi Shimizu and HOU Hsiao-hsien.

[therewillbeblus]

Naruse always made more sense as a comparison, and I think I recall people calling Still Walking his Ozu film, but I could be more. I always appreciate the way he focuses with such muted enthusiasm on ‘process’, like cooking from that film to La Vérité, finding the inherently sublime (and intimate, harmonic collaboration) in rote engagement

[diamonds]

I suspect he has also found inspiration from Hiroshi Shimizu and HOU Hsiao-hsien.

I'd wager you're right about Hou's influence considering Kore-eda made a documentary about him! It covers Edward Yang too. Shame it continues to be unavailable.

[Michael Kerpan]

I'd wager you're right about Hou's influence considering Kore-eda made a documentary about him! It covers Edward Yang too. Shame it continues to be unavailable.

I'd love to see this!

[Michael Kerpan]

People started bringing up Ozu at least as early as After Life, though I think it probably started as early as Maborosi (I didn't see Maborosi, or initial discussion of it, until after the release of After Life). By the time I first heard of Kore-eda in 2000, he was already starting to bridle at (rather facile) Ozu comparisons.

[Matt]

I definitely remember comparisons to Ozu when Maborosi was released in the States. Roger Ebert makes a lot out of it in his 1997 review, and I remember David Bordwell talking about it in a class in 1998.

[vsski]

I often wondered if the comparisons with Ozu is due to Ozu being much better known in the West than Naruse. I certainly feel Naruse as a greater influence than Ozu in Koreeda’s work.
And Koreeda has expressed admiration for Hou in several interviews and of course made the above mentioned documentary, so one can’t help but feel that he was influenced by Hou as well.

[Michael Kerpan]

It's not like Ozu is "irrelevant" to Kore'eda's work -- just that Ozu is too often invoked in a way that is extremely reductionist (and I think too often thoughtless and even a bit patronizing).

I feel Kore'eda's handling of children is more like Shimizu's than either Ozu's or Naruse's overall. Perhaps this is simply a function of the fact that his films, like Shimizu's, put children at or near the center of stories more often. But Kore'eda often seems to have a somewhat child-centered viewpoint (like Shimizu) when dealing with children, whereas this is atypical for Ozu and Naruse (albeit with a few exceptions). Kore'eda's handling of groups of children also reminded me of Zhang Yimou in Not One Less. One typically gets the illusion that one is seeing real children interact naturally (something I virtually never feel in watching Hollywood films of any era).

[colinr0380]

This may also be a good thread to note, in case people do not go into the Vinegar Syndrome thread very often, that one of the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels Dekanalog has just announced a Blu-ray edition of Air Doll for release at the end of this month.

[therewillbeblus]

For better or worse, members with varying tastes should start checking out that thread more often now that all partner labels are lumped together (I was guilty of only checking Fun City’s for a while there, before the merger) and releases from VG and other sublabels have gotten more eclectic and/or exciting

[Michael Kerpan]

As to Air Doll, I think it is pretty impressive -- but it gets tough (for me) to watch as it get near its end.

[artfilmfan]

I first saw Kore-eda’ Maborosi on the New Yorker Video DVD. I did not think much of it at the time. Then I saw the Ozu films. It was reading the Roger Ebert review which compared it to the films of Ozu that led me to want to see Maborosi again. I then bought the Japanese DVD which presented the film in the widescreen format. About a dozen viewings later, Maborosi has become my favorite Japanese film made in the last 55 years. Fifty-five years ago, another visually beautiful-looking film, which is also one of my favorite Japanese films, was made: Naruse’ Scattered Clouds. Haha! I got all three directors mentioned in the same paragraph.

[Michael Kerpan]

I honestly can't recall whether Maborosi led me to Ozu or vice versa. There wasn't that big a gap between discovering the two of them back in 2000. Poor Naruse had to wait a couple of years to pass from "interest" to abiding love.

If it weren't for Princess Mononoke (and the few other Ghibli films easily available back then), I probably wouldn't have discovered any of these directors.

[vsski]

Maborosi was my first Koreeda movie, which I saw in the late nineties shortly after it came out and it instantly got to me and to this day is one of my favorite of his. But at the time, even though I already had seen many of Ozu’s films, I never made the connection. When I later discovered Naruse I felt that some of his films were much closer, maybe because the ones I saw also had women at their center and focused on feeling and sentiment that is often not expressed verbally.

The one Koreeda movie that immediately made me think of Ozu was Still Walking, so I’m not saying that Ozu had no impact at all, it’s just that - at least for me - he wasn’t the first director that came to mind.

In the end though I love all three directors and happily watch any of their movies whether or not they influenced each other.

[Michael Kerpan]

Ozu and Naruse were probably essential to each other -- sort of friendly competitors who kept each other on their toes. Unlike Mizoguchi, who seemed to really be hostile/jealous towards Naruse.

I think, at one point, Kawase and Kore'eda had a similar close connection -- like Ozu and Naruse. But I suspect their paths diverged too far for that to continue (but maybe I'm wrong).

[vsski]

I think the “competition / rivalry” and mutual influence between Ozu and Naruse is well known and likely made for some very good films for both men. Mizoguchi has been the outlier and Kurosawa was a different generation.

But I’m curious Michael about your stated connection between Kawase and Kore-eda (sorry I shouldn’t have been so lazy and not spell his name correctly). Admittedly I don’t know as many of her films as of his, but what in their earlier films (my assumption given your comment, but maybe I misunderstood) makes you feel that they were on a similar trajectory at one point, the way they dealt with loss and grief, the handling of relationships, the commonalities of documentary and fiction films? Would love to hear more, as she is a director that I do like as well, but will have to dive deeper into her films.

[Michael Kerpan]

They actually collaborated on one project -- and they both had roots in documentary fil-making. One could argue that Kawase's first feature Suzaku showed some Naruse-esque traces (her second Hotaru is still MIA -- but it sounds like it might also have been like this). Dealing with loss -- and perseverance despite that -- does lik them (I think) -- and Naruse.