One of the winners of this year's Skip City International D-Cinema Festival is Kazuomi Makita's “Hierophanie”, an intimate drama about grief and the feeling of helplessness as we watch people's lives crumble. The director has been invited to the festival several times, with his short features “Point of the Love”, “Time Will Tell” and “The Birth”, making “Hierophanie” his first long feature. While many of the themes his movie deals with are more or less stables within the Japanese indie community, there is something quite special about his approach in terms of storytelling and visuals which makes “Hierophanie” stand out.
Hierophanie is screening at Skip City International D-Cinema Festival
After the suicide of her daughter, Shiori (Kayo Ise) quits her job as a therapist to work as a counselor at the local library. However, helping others dealing with their problems and trying to find solutions for them does not help her, as she still sees the final image of her daughter, one year after her death. One day, Hasegawa (Ryuta Furuya), a priest, asks her for help as he is worried about a member of his community, a young man named Tsujimura (Kosei Kudo), who has told him some troubling things during confession.
Without hesitation, Shiori agrees to meet with him. Even though the young man seems thankful for the offer, he does not come to their first real session after mass. After days of not hearing anything about Tsujima, a tragedy happens which shakes the lives of the priest and also Shiori's, as she now has to deal with her own sense of guilt about her daughter's death.
Considering the complex themes Makita tackles in “Hierophanie”, your need to talk about aspects such as structure. At 70 minutes of running time, the story follows a three-part structure, making each scene not only important, but also a revelation of something new about the characters and their relationship to one another. With many of his peers meandering in their features, Makita's movie is defined by a sense of purpose, perhaps deriving from his experience as the head of a theater group.
Structure and purpose are the defining factors of the visual approach to each scene and dialogue. The dialogue is short, but to the point, showcasing the emotional layers of each message; what is said versus what is hidden underneath the words. All the actors give great performances, making “Hierophanie” a true ensemble effort. Kayo Ise and Ryuta Furuya especially highlight their characters drive to help and listen to others as well as their frustration as they are unable to see the tragedy unfolding in front of their eyes. The audience goes through the same motions as these people as their struggle becomes relatable, making the feature as a whole very intimate and personal.
“Hierophanie” is a great drama about grief and the feeling of helplessness when we are unable to support others. Kazuomi Makita directs a movie with a clear sense of what he wants to express in the images, the dialogues and the performances, resulting in a feature which is formally and narratively very well done.
