After the Storm (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

After the Storm (2016) – H. Kore-eda

I’ve been a big fan of director Kore-eda’s films since I first stumbled into After Life (1998) in a cinema in London.  Admittedly, that was probably his oddest film to date (showing dead people in limbo recreating their favourite memory from their lives) and perhaps his best.  But he has matured into a director with a sensitive and subtle way of portraying everyday life and relationships, not shying away from serious moments but always imbuing events with both humour and humanity.  It’s the small moments (and the way the camera shows simple objects and environments, not unlike Ozu) that brings out the existentialism underlying Kore-eda’s cinema, even if the larger arcs of the plot don’t always go anywhere (much like some lives).  Here, Hiroshi Abe plays a recently divorced man whose irresponsible father has just died; we see that he cares for his own son, aged 9 or 10, but also that he is also as irresponsible as his own father was.  Abe’s career as a novelist seems to have ended after one book and now he earns what little money he can as a private detective for a firm specialising in divorce work and lost pets.  He blows a lot of his money gambling.  He also can’t seem to let go of his ex-wife and his dream of what could have been (including for his career).  I guess the film’s message is that he should move on (after the storm).  This makes it unlike all those fantasies where the couple gets back together and everyone lives happily ever after.  Instead, everyone’s life is just in process and the point is to focus on the here-and-now rather than on future pipe dreams or melancholy longing for days gone by.  Although all the cast is top notch, special mention must go to Kirin Kiki as the warm funny grandma.