Illusion
Japan,
1995, 110 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Hirokazu Kore-eda
- prod
-
Naoe Gozu
- scr
-
Yoshihisa Ogita
- cam
-
Masao Nakabori
- editor
-
Tomoyo Oshima
- cast
-
Makiko Esumi, Takashi Naito, Tadanobu Asano, Gohki Kashiyama
-
COMMENTS
Hirokazu Kore-eda in person.
With subtle, quiet precision, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s stunningly accomplished feature debut focuses on Yumiko, a troubled young woman who believes she is responsible for the death of her grandmother as well as the suicide of her first husband, Ikuo. Now, five years after Ikuo’s death, she is happily remarried; nonetheless, her guilt and sorrow are never far away. Returning to her home town for her brother’s wedding, Yumiko again confronts her anguish and the forebodings of death. In silence and in grief, she is drawn to a clifftop by the tolling of funeral bells—and by the siren call of the maborosi, a beautiful light that lures people into the sea. “The film is a document of the ‘light and shadow’ which flicker inside a woman,” says Kore-eda of Maborosi, which evokes the universal experience of mourning and regeneration. Kore-eda uses long, carefully composed wide-angle shots—no looming closeups, no swooping camera moves—to observe his characters and the cool colors and calm cinematography create a spiritual ambiance. It’s possible to see in this meditative, lyrical film echoes of Ozu and of the filmmaker’s mentor, Hou Hsiao-hsien, but there’s an aesthetic and emotional integrity here that is all Kore-eda’s.
FACTOID #78
Now among California’s political luminaries, former ambassador Shirley Temple Black and Representative Nancy Pelosi both worked at the Festival in their days as civilians. Temple assisted in film selection in the mid-’60s and Pelosi planned Festival events in the ’70s.
