Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Country/Distributor: Japan, Film Movement
Opening: March 17
In Hirokazu Koreeda’s achingly lovely Still Walking (2008), the sublime Kirin Kiki lovingly prepares a meal of corn tempura, pork belly kakuni, and kinpira daikon for her reunited family. As in so many of Kore-eda’s films, everyday comforts sustain and nurture otherwise strained relations; remember the whitebait fish toast in last year’s Our Little Sister?
In his new film, After the Storm, which the director considers a spiritual continuation of Still Walking, Kiki, as another gently manipulative matriarch, warms the souls of her divorced son Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) and daughterin- law Kyoko (Yoko Maki), and their 11-year-old son, Shingo (Taiyo Yoshizawa), with steaming bowls of noodles and bean curd and jars of scrumptiouslooking pickled delights. Much of this happens during…
