After The Storm

Writer Shinoda Ryota (Abe Hiroshi) is supposedly researching his new novel by spending some time with a private detective agency. However, there’s little inspiration to be found and it’s a way getting money both to live on and feed his gambling addiction. Added to this is his divorce settlement and access to his son.

He has difficulty paying and while he now yearns to see his son and be a father, it’s late as ex-wife Shiraishi Kyôko (Yoko Maki) points out that Shingo (Taiyo Yoshizawa) needed a father earlier in his life. She has moved on now compounding matters by dating a wealthy individual and this rubbing him up the wrong way.

Ryota while amiable enough is living on past glories; the reputation he earned as a novelist is drying up. He’s asked to consider working on Manga comics. A notch down he feels but a reasonable income. He says he’s working on a novel but other than post-its with ideas, there’s not a lot to see.

This all crystallises one night when a bad storm hits Tokyo and the estranged couple and Shingo (Taiyo Yoshizawa) reluctantly stay at his mother’s house. It’s here that home truths are aired and realties have to be faced.

It’s beautifully shot and sensitively written, edited and directed by Kore-Eda Hirokazu about a man coming to terms with his past and reluctantly acknowledging his future. The past is ever present in this film, almost a burden, as he goes back to his old neighbourhood - briefly reminiscing with an old-school friend - and his sister’s home truths.

And there is his mother Shinoda pragmatically played by Kirin Kiki who has a foot in the past - she would love to see the couple reunited – but is realistic. She too has moved on as in the scene where Ryota looks for a supposedly valuable scroll that belonged to his late father to learn that she has sold it.

It’s a gentle but engrossing look at domestic life interspersed with under achievement, neglect and guilt. The acting is low key but excellent throughout and suits the domestic settings and situations. It’s not about all good things – there don’t appear too many of them here - just that things come to an end.