What the Queen wrote as a placeholder:
Placeholder for the only movie that 6451 and Pixelmatsch saw at different time slots, but I didn’t even though I wanted to. Weirdest thing ever.
Due to some weird reasons back in 2010 that I don’t remember anymore, I never finished the Berlinale post for Yamada Yoji’s remake of this movie. Of course, I had to watch the original this year!
Ototo (Her Brother)
Japan 1960, Ichikawa Kon, 93′
Gen can be described with one word: sacrifice. Due to her stepmother’s rheumatism she manages the household while also attending school. Her younger brother Hekiro is a drifter, with no aim and no ambitions he walks through life carelessly, getting into trouble all the time. Every time Gen is there to bail him out, to protect him, to comfort him when no one else will. The mother is caricature of a Christian; influenced by a judgemental church lady she estranges herself more and more from this “weird” family in an attempt to exculpate herself. The father, a writer, has no interest in anything other than his work, offering no help to anyone. Only when Hekiro becomes seriously ill after his many escapades the family somehow pulls together.
Gen oozes sacrifice. It seeps off the screen into the audience! Hekiro is rage-inducing with his aimless drifter and seemingly complete disregard for the trouble and hurt he causes for the only person in the world that unconditionally loves him. One of the issues of the movie is that you never find out why Gen loves Hekiro so much: he has no redeeming qualities and there is no scene to explain why circumstances may have turned her so protective of her younger brother. What does work however is the portrayal of their relationship. Keiko Kishi wonderfully plays her role, as much as she oozes sacrifice, Gen’s love for her brother is tangible. Her little moment when she’s playfully upset about him are wonderfully cute and though you never understand why Gen has not abandoned her brother yet, you can easily feel the love she has for that worthless punk. In fact, Hiroshi Kawaguchi is just as proficient at being rage-inducing. His performance near the end, when he’s gravely ill and finally realises what his life has amounted to up until then is also very nice.
While the original had the better actors, the remake felt more relatable to me. Probably because the brother was less troublesome and the values and circumstances were less archaic. If you can somehow get over disagreeing with the values of the people and society the story is set in, you can enjoy some really strong performances from the main actors.