Still Walking (Blu-ray)
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Studio: Criterion
Year: 2008
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 114 minutes
Rating: NR
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo Japanese
Subtitles: English
Region: A
MSRP: $ 39.95
Release Date: February 8, 2011
Review Date: February 10, 2011
The Film
3.5/5
Families! Hard to live with them and hard to live without them, and that’s certainly the rationale behind Hirokazu Kore-eda’s lovely slice-of-Japanese life drama Still Walking. In terms of monumental domestic drama, the movie is a lightweight; it doesn’t deal with big issues or major revelations or personal epiphanies that lead to gargantuan changes in perceptions or behaviors. But, as an intimate look at family dynamics, there is enough variety here to offer something all can identify with. That is this film’s unique offering to its viewers.
A bitter disappointment to his doctor father (Shohei Tanaka) since he chose not to pursue a medical career, second son Ryota Yokoyama (Hiroshi Abe) brings his new wife (Yui Natsukawa), herself a widow with a young, very well-behaved son (Yoshio Harada), to visit his parents at a yearly ritual honoring their deceased older son who had followed in his father’s footsteps as a doctor. Also present is the family’s chatterbox daughter (You) whose car salesman husband (Kazuya Takahashi) and their two rambunctious children are obviously not particular favorites of the judgmental father and very disparaging mother (Kirin Kiki). Over the course of the day, recipes are exchanged, memories are shared (some fun, some painful or infuriating), and opinions offered on just about every subject.
Judgmental parents never being fully satisfied with the life paths of their surviving children are the writer-director’s focus on this meditation on family dysfunction, and while things never get very ugly within its twenty-four hours of elapsed screen time, one can see feelings hurt and psyches wounded by word and by deed. On the other hand, there is some bonding occurring as well making the journey not totally unpleasant for the young marrieds. The movie’s small, intimate feel abounds in details of family life from the cooking rituals to walks along the beach, and it would be seemingly impossible not to see something of one’s own life and family dynamics reflected in this singular family’s time together. Several scenes are memorable. The walk to and from and the time spent at the cemetery over the grave of the beloved older son is poignantly played and shot as the dead is honored and the living have to endure the unreachable perfection of distant memories. A visit by the now-grown boy who was saved when the son died is an uncomfortable sequence made even more starkly grave in its aftermath as the mother explains her knife-twisting digs at the survivor which give her such pleasure and which she has no intention of ending. Two different episodes with yellow butterflies also offer an unusually unsettling vibe to situations that normally wouldn’t be given a second thought. The director makes much out of little throughout this remembrance.
The standout performance of the film is Kirin Kiki’s as the fiercely determined and unyielding mother Toshiko. She can prick the confidence of the most stalwart individual without raising her voice or seeming to care, and both Hiroshi Abe and Yui Natsukawa are masterful in their reactions to her subtle form of personal tyranny. Shohei Tanaka’s gruff, bitter doctor, angry that the passage of years has rendered him ineffectual, makes a sourly effective match with his critical wife. You’s nasally whiny, singsong voice is a decided ordeal to endure during all of the daughter’s scenes, but Kazuya Takahashi brings some of the film's only lightness and affability as the trying-hard-to-please Nobuo.
Video Quality
4/5
The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 is faithfully rendered in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. It’s a very naturalistic image with good color and more than adequate sharpness that seems just a trifle reserved. Flesh tones are natural and well delineated. There are some blooming whites in a scene where a cloud-filled sky fills the frame, and black levels are mostly only average. The white subtitles are easy to read. The film has been divided into 19 chapters.
Audio Quality
4/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 stereo sound mix offers excellent fidelity with Gontiti’s lilting music a particular treat in this encoding. Dialogue is accurately rendered, and sound effects like crashing ocean waves and traffic along busy streets is acutely portrayed without drawing great attention to itself.
Special Features
3/5
Unless otherwise noted, the video featurettes are presented in 1080p.
Writer-director-editor Hirokazu Kore-eda is interviewed in a 25 ¼-minute segment filmed in 2010. He discusses his inspiration for the film (his own mother and her death) and comments on the aspects of the story taken from his own experiences.
Cinematographer Yutaka Yamazaki speaks for 13 ¼ minutes about working with the director on this film and various other projects both fictional and documentary in nature.
A making-of documentary which features behind-the-scenes looks at the initial table read, filming on location, and interviews with the director and members of the cast as they’re directed in scenes runs for 28 ½ minutes. It’s in 1080i.
The film’s trailer runs 2 minutes.
The enclosed 21-page booklet contains the cast and crew lists, some color stills from the movie, a career essay on the director by movie writer Dennis Lim, and some select recipes of dishes featured in the movie.
The Criterion Blu-rays include a maneuvering tool called “Timeline” which can be pulled up from the menu or by pushing the red button on the remote. It shows you your progress on the disc and the title of the chapter you’re now in. Additionally, two other buttons on the remote can place or remove bookmarks if you decide to stop viewing before reaching the end of the film or want to mark specific places for later reference.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
A small but entertaining examination of a slightly dysfunctional family persevering despite its personal difficulties forms the nucleus of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Still Walking. The Blu-ray release offers attractive picture and sound and some nice bonus features that extend the film’s impact making for a package one should seriously consider renting.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
