After the Storm | Blu-ray Review

One of this year’s overlooked gems, Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After the Storm received a solemn theatrical release in March of 2017 courtesy of US distributor Film Movement. After premiering in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes 2016, Kore-eda’s most effortless film to date raked in a meager two-hundred-and-seventy thousand at six theatrical houses. While not as celebrated as his 2013 Like Father, Like Son or 2015’s Our Little Sister, both which competed in the Cannes Main Comp and managed to outperform his latest (though not by much), this under-the-radar melodrama showcases Kore-eda at his best, a modern-day homage to the well-crafted subtleties of Ozu.

His latest is another portrait of reunion, or, at least the desire for one by a disgraced father struggling against circumstance to convince the ex-wife he loves to give him one more chance. A variety of generously attenuated supporting characters enhances the often amusing yet bittersweet, melancholic endeavor of strong arming one’s way into the life they desire.

Once a promising novelist and now struggling to make ends meet as a private investigator (an occupation apparently viewed with notable disdain), divorced dad Ryota (Abe Hiroshi), professes to use his current employment as a ruse to research his next novel but gambles away his earnings. In reality, he’s not published anything in fifteen years, chasing a non-lucrative dream which was one of many reasons which led to the dissolution of his marriage to Kyoko (Maki Yoko), a woman he still loves. The recent death of his father and Kyoto dating other men forces Ryota to reconsider his options. Attempting to make a more valiant attempt to reconnect with his twelve-year-old son Shingo (Yoshizawa Taiyo), and aided by the well-meaning manipulations of his mother (an endearing Kiki Kilin), Ryota seizes a chance opportunity to remain with his family as a typhoon sets down and drives them all under one roof, forcing them to remember good times, and allowing father and son to bond.

Those familiar with Koreeda’s cinema will instantly recognize the similar themes, fleshed out by actors he’s used before. A bedraggled Abe Hiroshi (who starred in Still Walking) provides the film its shining hour as a sensitively and poignantly rendered father trying to pursue his creative dreams and keep his family together. When he’s not stealing moments with his wife or son, Hiroshi’s Ryota struggles through the denial of his current state at work, forced to engage in acts and the exchange of information which only serve to drive other families apart rather than keeping them together. These passages are sometimes cynical, yet upbeat, and provide After the Storm with insight into his character’s struggle to keep going. “Every year men are becoming less manly,” he observes in response to his boss’s (a streetwise Lily Frankie) derisive outlook, his way of rationalizing the modern state of things, their business, and perhaps his own lack of motivation in a world which hasn’t seemed to dole out many favors. Exchanges with fleeting characters reveal his celebrated novel, The Empty Table, was a familial drama about a troubled family, and Ryota was praised for his realism, although an interaction with his bitter sister suggests this was what his upbringing was actually like. Unable to properly secure his own familial unit, he wasn’t able to write a sophomore novel because he failed at the very stage he was trying to draw inspiration from.

As Kyoko, Maki Yoko (of Like Father, Like Son) is shown to be more pragmatic, her interactions with her ex-husband based solely on monetary exchange. His withholding of child support only means more interactions he can steal with his son, much to her chagrin. Yoko’s best moments are shared opposite Kiki Kilin (who recently gave an equally poignant performance in Naomi Kawase’s Sweet Bean, and has starred in a number of Koreeda’s film, including I Wish and last year’s Our Little Sister), who treats her like a daughter. Most of Kilin’s moments are graced with a mischievous nuance (“New friends at my age only makes more funerals,” she flippantly observes).

Typhoon season provides After the Storm with a fitting metaphor. Peripheral conversation implies it’s been an unusually blustery time of year, with so many typhoons they’ve merely been assigned names as residents routinely batten the hatches and hunker down. Much like the stormy exchanges between loved ones, there are, at times, too many to count or record properly. But as Koreeda’s title indicates, it’s those moments shortly after the deluge, in the hopeful glow of getting back to a semblance of comfort and normalcy, even when it’s not entirely the desired outcome, these are often the poignant, memorable moments.

Holed up in an outdoor children’s playhouse, just as his own father used to do with him during storms, Ryota, Shingo, and Kyoko share a meaningful exchange. While none of them may have achieved the outcome they’ve set out for, it’s a testament to enjoying spontaneous moments, those bits of life happening in-between the displeasure with the present and the fantasy of the future. Surely one of Koreeda’s subtlest exercises on the tenuousness of family to date, it is also one of his best.

Disc Review:

Film Movement releases Kore-eda on Blu-ray in 1.85:1 with 5.1 Surround Sound. Picture and audio are well-attenuated in this transfer (and one wishes the label would release more of its prolific library on Blu). Also, the release features a more substantial extra feature alongside its customary bonus short film from an unrelated artist.

The Last Dream:
This twelve-minute short directed by Noemie Nakai and Carmen Kobayashi examines a world where humans have lost the ability to dream, while a corporation has discovered how to sell recycled fantasies to the population.

Making of Documentary:
A seventy-three-minute documentary details the making of After the Storm, which began pre-production in 2014. The feature details Kore-eda’s process and development of the film.

Final Thoughts:

One of Kore-eda’s most emotionally poignant films and strongest familial dramas to date, After the Storm is an absolute pleasure.

Film Review: ★★★★/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆