For many film fans, 2012 wasn’t a very good year for Japanese films. There seemed to be a bit of a decline in moviegoing generally – quite a lot of cinemas closed down in that year. It was also a year in which some top film directors started to work for the TV instead, so that the pool of movie talent was less than before. These directors included Kiyoshi Kurasowa, who has done TV work in the past but in 2012 did some major work in this area with a new series.
Still, plenty of films were still being made – in fact, in Japan as in other countries, now that it is cheaper and easier to make a film than it used to be, the number of independent movies being made has probably increased, though not all these are necessarily of top quality.
Some movies that have been both popular with audiences and acclaimed by the critics are the following:
Kamihate Shoten (Store) is a sad story set in a small fishing port on a remote Japanese island. At the end of a quiet bus route is a small, unsuccessful store run by an old lady, selling basics such as bread. The people who visit the area have mostly come to kill themselves by jumping off the nearby cliffs. The old lady herself, Chiyo, is haunted by tragedies in her own past. She tries to prevent people from coming to her shop to buy their last meal before killing themselves, even closing the store down, but they always find another way to do it and in the end she accepts this as her role, offering a kind of comfort to desperate people. The film, by well known director Tatsuya Yamamoto, won praise for its atmosphere and Keiko Takahashi’s performance in the lead role, but it proved too slow and perhaps too depressing for many audiences although in many ways the film is about compassion and redemption rather than death.
A more comic movie from 2012 is Miryoku no ningen – the Charm of Others. This is again set largely in a shop – this time a repair shop that mends old vending machines. The film is directed by Ryaturo Ninomiya and concentrates on the lives of the men who work in the shop – one of whom is played by Ninomiya himself. The workers are portrayed very realistically, often as lazy, lacking in initiative and using a lot of their energy in petty power struggles, but also warmly as human beings dealing with everyday problems.
Another interesting film from this year is My House by Yukihiko Tsutsumi. The title here is ironic because the main character is a homeless man and the film was in fact inspired by a book about homeless people and the places they live in. In particular, Tsutsumi was interested in one man in this book, who created his own home out of materials that could easily be dismantled and then set up again somewhere else. In the film this character is called Suzumoto and is played by a well known folk singer with no acting background, Takao Ito.
Suzumoto earns his living by collecting empty cans from people’s houses and selling them. In this way he meets a well off but unhappy family, and the film especially focuses on his relationship with the son of the family, a brilliant but unstable young student who is addicted to coca cola – giving Suzumoto a huge number of cans to collect. The closed, wealthy but empty world of this family is contrasted with the perilous, often more authentic world of the homeless.
You can see a list of 2012 Japanese films here.