Love Life

After a detailed and almost enigmatic introduction to a Japanese family, something happens that shakes both the film and the family. We are dragged along on a journey both inward and outward, with colorful characters, sensitive dialogues, and personal relationships that either flourish or die. In the distance that opens up between Jiro and Taeko, their exes sneak in to disturb the balance between them. Their small nuclear family is slowly disintegrating, and one asks the question: What holds people together, what constitutes a family?

Director Kōji Fukada is known for making films that are both intimate and contemplative. The long, slow-moving conversations are characterized by great underlying emotions - it is as much about what is not said as what is said. We observe the main characters and get to know them, even if they only really reveal themselves in a very few moments. The film deals with death and drama that is otherwise only found in melodramas, but Fukada treats the material in a delicate way.