I knew that blogging the Berlinale would become a chore one day. I was not able to blog a single film while the festival was still running, and I suspected it would take me the entire rest of the month of February at least to blog it. It also means that it’s been over two weeks since I saw the films I am blogging, and my memories and perceptions change. Oh well, it is an eternal blogging dilemma.
Today marks my earliest movie, 9am at the Friedrichstadtpalast. I was only able to secure a moderately good seat because I fell asleep in the subway and exited at Yorckstraße. Big mistake, there was a bus instead of the S-Bahn and I ended up running into the movie theater at 9.02am. Luckily they almost always start about 5 minutes after the scheduled time. I was perfectly fine and saw the entire film. After that stress, I ended up not seeing anything at all anymore, which is unfortunate because Pixelmatsch seems to have had fun.
Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House)
Japan 2014, Yoji Yamada, 136’
At the beginning of the 1930’s, Taki is a young woman from the northern parts of Japan who found employment as a maid. The Hirai family she works for consists of a nice couple with a little boy, who Taki becomes close to. They live in a cute little Western-style house with a bright red roof in the suburbs of Tokyo. While the husband is mostly interested in his business affairs and war politics, both the wife and young Taki fall in love with a co-worker of her husband’s, the young artist Itakura. Even as Mrs. Hirai begins to have an affair with the young man, Taki continues to stay loyal and care for the family. However, as the war drags, Itakura faces the risk of being drafted.
Death count: 3.
To be honest, when I heard that someone in Chiisai Ouchi got the award for best female actress, I honestly thought it would be Takako Matsu. I thought she was quite good in “Confessions” (though the film did not stand out for me, it was just solid all around), and Haru Kuroki is a complete youngster. She was lovely and very cute, but I am not sure how much acting is involved with that role. From what I can see, she essentially played herself. Even so, I really like her! Her somewhat plain face is so awesome, especially when compared to Takako Matsu’s astonishing beauty.
“Chiisai Ouchi” was a rather emotional film for me. With its psychological subtlety, the film hit my feelings perfectly except for the end. Just like other reviews suggested, I too thought the end was a little overly spelled out. I think it would have been nice to let it end with the shot where Taki says “I have lived for too long” and cries, and then cut to Takeshi finding the letter and saying something along the lines of “That little sin of yours, Aunt Taki, has been long forgiven.” That’s it. For me, that would have nailed the effect. Apart from that, Taki’s feelings were beautifully portrayed and of a bittersweet subtlety. But the not-really-love-triangle is not even the main draw of the film, it is those many historical details surrounding the film. Even though the film never really goes outside the little house which gave the film its title, the film shows with many details how much the war affects people’s lives even at the little house. We see children say “banzai” to each other in front of the house, characters running out of supplies and getting food from black markets, and finally the rumor that it is immoral to indulge in such things as love when there is a war effort going on. You can easily sense how the film focuses its sympathies with female characters who want absolutely nothing to do with the war, and in the end, the war effectively destroyed their lives even though they haven’t seen a single battlefield.
Similar with “Akibiyori”, I suppose I was also totally mesmerized with the style of the film. Even Taki always looks super clean and proper, and the little bit you see of her kimono underneath the housekeeper apron looks absolutely stylish. The film is a feast for the eyes, and it made me wish I could live in that little house and wear their clothes. I also was quite fond of the three time layers of story-telling – there is the time line where Taki is dead, the time line where old Taki is writing her memoir and discussing it with Takeshi and finally the time line of the happenings of the memoir. All three of them are actually necessary for the crucial ending, but even if you put that aside I liked it as a story-telling device.
One of my favorite scenes in the film is actually the one with Taki and her mother at the very beginning – it’s one in the film I remember which has humor in it. They speak a Northern dialect and talk about her dialect, and all the while the German subtitles are in Bavarian and the English subtitles say “y’all” and such. Many people laughed out loud. In situations like these, I am glad that movie theaters exist.
In the direct comparison with “Bai Ri Yan Huo”, I actually think that “Chiisai Ouchi” is the better film. It’s clever and has generally grander ambitions which it completely fulfills. If only it wasn’t for those extra 20 minutes with that dragged out ending, the film would have made an even bigger impact on me.