30th April 2017 : Kor-eda's AFTER THE STORM

AFTER THE STORM
A film by Hirokazu Kore-eda
2016/ Japan/ 117minutes/
5.45pm/ 30^th April 2017/ Perks Mini Theater
http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.nl/

AFTER THE STORM is a sobering, transcendent tale of a divorced man’s efforts to nudge back into his son’s life. The main story belongs to Ryota. He is a prize-winning novelist who hasn’t published anything for 15 years and is currently working in a private detective agency. His family life is shattered after the divorce. He longs to be with his son. He tries to make amends with his ex-wife. Nothing seems to work.

Ryota asks many questions over the course of 'After the Storm'. The most prominent, perhaps, is "Why did my life turn out like this?" Fate brings the family together for a few hours with Ryota's mother. After the Storm's director Hirokazu Kore-eda is at his best in moments of togetherness, an artist who believes in the power of family without advocating for a return to the womb.

Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker  Kore-eda's stories, such as they are, unfold in unlikely ways. He doesn't play so much with structure, but with focus: He'll allow a scene to go on and on before slipping in a crucial bit of narrative information that sends the story off in a new direction. We can lose ourselves in these films — wondering what's around every corner and what's going on in the mind of even the most minor of characters.  AFTER THE STORM is Kore-eda's achingly beautiful ode to the quiet complexities of family life. 
(Source: Internet)

Hirokazu Koreeda

Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda was born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at TV Man Union. Sneaked off set to film _Lessons from a Calf (1991)_. His first feature, Maboroshi no hikari (1995), based on a Teru Miyamoto novel and drawn from his own experiences whilst filming _August Without Him (1994)_, won jury prizes at Venice and Chicago. The main themes of his oeuvre include memory and loss, death and loss, and the intersection of documentary and fictional narratives.

In a short period of time, Hirozaku Koreeda has gained a solid reputation as one of the most significant figures of contemporary Japanese cinema. His oeuvre is currently comprised of eight films including his television documentary work with TV Man Union, Inc. and his narrative films (After Life, Maborosi) which reflect the contemplative style and pacing of such luminaries as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-liang. He has become a cinematographic tightrope walker who almost unnoticeably switches between fictitious and real territories, between narration and invention, the private and the public.