All of master filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda's works are about the family unit, but some of them have specific focuses.
In Our Little Sister it's sisterhood, in Like Father, Like Son it's fatherhood and in After the Storm, it's divorcees.
A typhoon is approaching the Kiyose township from the south, but it's not the storm referred to in the film's title - that would be the recent one-two punch of a bereavement and a divorce that broke apart the Shinoda family.
The story centres mostly on four characters from three generations of the family, but primarily on Ryota, a man somewhat lost after the death of his father, divorce from his wife and partial alienation from his son.
With his destructive penchant for gambling threatening to tear Ryota away from his loved ones forever, he makes haphazard attempts to regain their trust and respect, which the typhoon may either amplify or hinder dramatically.
After the Storm is unmistakably a Hirokazu film and bears many of the director's motifs that we fans cherish. But it's so restrained, even for him, that it doesn't connect emotionally as strongly as I would've liked.
Ultimately, it doesn't say as much as his other films about what it means to be Japanese in the modern world, about family, about life itself. Deep observations are certainly there and much meaning can be gratifyingly teased out of them, but there's a downbeat melancholy to it all, rather than a moving beauty.
It also lacks some of his stylistic flourishes in favour of a very stripped back, simple approach with barely any music or ambitious cinematography.
When the typhoon reaches Kiyose, After the Storm finally moves up a gear and starts delivering satisfying payoffs and more overt observations, before a wonderfully quiet conclusion.
It's an adorable film that I enjoyed a great deal, but it doesn't quite reach the high bar Hirokazu has set previously.
Four stars.
This film is playing as part of the 2016 New Zealand International Film Festival.
After the Storm (Umi yori mo mada fukaku):: Director: Hirokazu Koreeda:: Starring: Abe Hiroshi, Maki Yoko, Yoshizawa Taiyo, Kiki Kirin :: Rating: M - adult themes:: Running Time: 117 minutes
Reviewed by Daniel Rutledge / Newshub.
