Why this excellent film is not more famous is beyond me, because it deserves to be a classic. It is very original, intriguing, tender, even funny. Makes you think about how our most cherished memories can be anything from the dramatic to the fleeting or even banal. A very good observation of different personality types, too. Thoroughly recommended. I have watched and enjoyed other films by this director but this must be his best.
Koreeda does not seem capable of making even a mediocre film. However while he ordinarily charts the territory Japanese cinema has excelled at - melodrama - this, his second feature, is something altogether different. As profound as anything produced by Beckett, and around 1000 times as warm, humane and beautiful, this is a stunning depiction of memory, loss and the meaning of life. Where existentialism of the French variety usually comes across as horror for people who don’t read newspaper, in Koreeda’s hands we have something moving - i more or less couldn’t stop crying - Precisely because it does not reduce life to waiting or to the abstract perilousness of existence - is capable of capturing the complexity of life, both its difficulties and its triumphs (both of which almost always involve other people whom we care about). Koreeda has gone on to make some wonderful and unforgettable films - all of which made me cry for several days - but for my money, he has never made anything quite as special as this.