Yureru (Sway) – 2006

Japanese cinema is experiencing a new Golden age. According to the statistics, 2006 was the first time in many years that local films accounted for the majority of ticket sales in Japan. Some of my favorite films from recent years came from Japan, from little charming movies like Kamikaze Girls or Linda Linda Linda to glossy big budget epics like Always – Sunset on the 3rd Street or Umizaru – Limit of Love.

Sway belongs more to the first group of films, it’s a very small movie about very big things. The movie tells the story of Takeru (Joe Odagiri – The feminine bad guy from Azumi), a successful Tokyo photographer who returns to his small home town for his mother’s funeral. What was supposed to be a quick 24 hour visit becomes a much longer one that will also involve a murder mystery and a trial in which Takeru’s brother is the main suspect.

Sway is one of those films that disguises itself as a murder mystery but actually does not at all care about solving the mystery or presenting the viewer with any sort of solution to the crime. Instead it chooses to focus on the effects of the incident on the relationships of all the people involved.

I knew that the film is produced by Hirokazu Kore Eda and that the film’s director, Miwa Nishikawa, is considered to be Kore Eda’s protege so I did not expect this to be a straight forward murder mystery or trial film. I pretty much got what I expected, a very delicately made character study and a meditation about life and how the choices people make effect their existence and that of everyone around them.

Like Kore Eda’s work this film is also slow moving, but it builds it’s power slowly and it creeps up on you as it makes it’s way to it’s elegant and haunting climax. Overall this is another excellent Japanese film, but I do understand that this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea.

Japanese heartthrob Joe Odagiri gives a surprisingly effective performance in the depressingly haunting Sway

~ by bettertomorrow on March 1, 2007.