On Feb 4, 6:27=C2=A0pm, william wrote:
> Yo,
>
> "Maborosi" was impressive. "Nobody Knows" is stunning. It's based on a
> true story of a women who abandons her children. Just leaves them,
> after a while, to fend for themselves in an apartment. Each child has
> a different father and the fathers aren't anywhere around. Any number
> of other directors would go for the sentimental and manipulative
> aspects of the story and the interactions between the children (aged 4
> to 12, or so) would be played for the pathos. Hirokazu Koreeda is more
> interested in presenting the realities of the situation and working
> with some tight cinematography he elicits some really good
> performances from the kids. (Y=C5=ABya Yagira who plays the eldest, a boy
> of 12, beat out Tom Hanks -- among others -- to win best actor at
> Cannes.)
>
> Some situations just don't have closure or resolution and apparently
> -- at least based on the two films that I've seen -- that isn't
> something that concerns Koreeda. He's worth seeing just for that. I
> have another of his films on my reserve list and I'm pacing around
> waiting for it.
Wow, he also did AFTER LIFE. Maybe ethnic insensitivity on my part
that I hadn't homed in on him as such a noteworthy director, as, like
most here, I'm quite attentive to that particular credit. I wonder
which American directors, if any, would be his counterpart with a
solid career of small, personal, and highly affecting films without
having been sucked into the industry maw. I can't think of a soul not
overseas. Maybe Richard Linklater... Gus Van Sant (intermittently)...
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