Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Tetta Shimada, Atom Sunada, Hirona Yamazaki, Misuzu Kanno, Tomorowo TaguchiKoji Fukada, just cresting middle-age, has emerged as the latest in a long, fecund line of humanist Japanese filmmakers. Striking events happen in pictures such as Harmonium and A Girl Missing, but the real drama is crackling behind the eyes of often troubled characters. The most shocking moment here comes at the funeral of a child.
Love Life, which premiered in competition at last year’s Venice Film Festival, begins in relatively happy circumstances. Taeko and Jiro , her husband, are raising their son Keita in a typically compact Japanese apartment. Fans of the 1970s board game Othello will be interested to learn that it is still played at a high level in Japan – from where world champions emerge – and catches the interest of intelligent, focused kids such as Keita.
Tragedy strikes at a birthday party for Taeko’s father-in-law. When attention is elsewhere, Keita dies in a freak accident and the subsequent pressures test the couple’s relationship to breaking point. The police ask a number of awkward questions. It emerges that Jiro never formally adopted the boy after marrying Taeko. Then Park , Keita’s dad, stages his protest in the funeral parlour.
Love Life is not short of narrative diversions. Indeed, though a tad long at two hours, it is stuffed with intertwining plots. We learn that Park is deaf and that he is now homeless. Taeko is forced to assist her ex with sign language when he applies for welfare assistance. Jiro’s parents do not approve of his marriage. And so on.
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