Coincidentally, I viewed ‘Still Walking‘, Hirokazu Koreeda‘s 2008 film the day after viewing ‘Tokyo Story‘, Yasujirô Ozu‘s masterpiece. The two films are made 55 years apart, but they are very close in terms of dealing with the relationships between generations, between aging parents and children who have become parents, the time that passes irreversibly and the lost opportunities to express feelings and fix the mistakes of the past. However, the two films are more related to each other than by the subjects, because in this film Koreeda reuses some of Ozu‘s cinematic techniques. The films seem related in terms of topics and style, and I suspect that ‘Still Walking‘, was conceived by Koreeda as a tribute to the master of himself and of an entire film school in Japan.
As in ‘Tokyo Story‘, the film centers around a family reunion that brings together three generations. The occasion is sad, because the gathering is about the commemoration of the death of the eldest brother of the three children of Dr. Kiohei Yokoyama (Yoshio Harada), who was supposed to continue his work taking over his clinic, and who died saving a boy from drowning. The event occasions the confrontation between the elderly father, retired from his practice, but ‘still walking’ and the second son, Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) who lives in the shadow of his missing brother, of his father’s disappointment and of the insecurity in his personal life. The dialogue between parents and children highlights the differences in style and pace of life between generations and the effect of the passage of time marked by unfulfilled expectations and missed opportunities. As in Ozu‘s movies, the heroes fail to translate their feelings into words, but are ultimately united by simple shared memories and by gestures that are sometimes part of ceremonies designed to pass from one generation to another the respect and the memory of those who no longer are.
Among the excellent acting performances, I have especially noticed that of Hiroshi Abe, who injects complexity and veracity to the role of Ryota. Cinematography often quotes Ozu, especially in the indoor scenes, with the fix camera and the characters building the entire dynamics of the scenes through their movements in the rectangular space. Quotes can also be considered to be the connecting frames – trains, the sky, the sea that describe the social background in which the action takes place. Hirokazu Koreeda proves with ‘Still Walking‘, that he assimilated the lessons of his predecessors and continues them with respect, talent and sensitivity.