Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2016
After the Storm (2016 film)
Buy After the Storm (2016 film) now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
is a 2016 Japanese family drama film edited, written, and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and was released in Japan on May 21, 2016. The film received acclaim from critics.
Plot
Dwelling on his past glory as a prize-winning author from a single novel, Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) wastes any money he makes as a private detective on gambling and can barely make ends meet or pay child support for his son. He makes extra money by offering his own services to the detective agency's clients or blackmailing them. Though he is offered a contract to write for a manga series with an upcoming artist, his personal pride gets in the way.
After the death of his father, his aging mother Yoshiko (Kirin Kiki) seems to be moving on with her life with hobbies with the local elderly ladies. Ryota finds his sister Chinatsu is visiting their mother frequently and suspects she is trying to sponge off her; he later learns their mother is to fund his sister's daughter's new figure skating lessons from her social pension. His sister in her turn suspects Ryota's visits are for getting money from their mother and recounts an old hiding place where their mother successfully hid money from their gambler father. When Ryota checks it later he is pleased to find what he thinks is cash only to unwrap cardboard and a note to him from his sister.
Ryota is trying to get back with his ex-wife Kyoko (Yoko Maki), who has grown tired of Ryota's excuses for his continual failure to pay child support and threatens to stop letting him spend time with their young son, Shingo (Taiyo Yoshizawa). Ryota is aware that Kyoko has a new boyfriend and fears her remarriage will end his relationship with Shingo. In a stormy summer night, sheltered at his mother's home with his family from the typhoon, Ryota attempts to take back control of his existence and to find a lasting place in Shingo's life. His ex-wife says it is truly over with them and grown-ups cannot live only with love, planning is required as well and Ryota isn't cut out to be a family man. If he were, he would have done so earlier. Ryota understands and uses the storm as a chance to bond with his son by repeating a memorable experience he once had with his father sheltering in a local playground as the storm rages.
The next morning, they resume their lives.
Cast
*Hiroshi Abe as Ryota Shinoda
*Yko Maki as Kyoko Shiraishi
*Taiy Yoshizawa as Shingo Shiraishi
*Kirin Kiki as Yoshiko Shinoda
*Satomi Kobayashi as Chinatsu Shinoda
*Sosuke Ikematsu
*Kazuya Takahashi
*Aju Makita
*Lily Franky
*Isao Hashizume
Production
Kore-eda conceived of the film in 2001 when he visited his mother, who had been living alone in a housing complex after his father's death. He started writing the screenplay in the summer of 2013. Filming began in May 2014 and lasted a month and a half, in between the production of 'Our Little Sister', which was shot throughout a year.
Reception
Box office
On its opening weekend at the Japanese box office, 'After the Storm' was placed fifth, with 89,510 admissions.Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a approval rating on based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, "'After the Storm' crosses cultural lines to offer timeless observations about parental responsibilities, personal bonds, and the capacity for forgiveness." It also holds an 84/100 on Metacritic. Calling the film "a classic Japanese family drama of gentle persuasion and staggering simplicity", which is "beautifully balanced between gentle comedy and the melancholy reality of how people really are," Deborah Young of 'The Hollywood Reporter' suggests the film is about how "you cant always have the life you want, or be who you want to be".Accolades
References
Buy After the Storm (2016 film) now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 2016