Family dramas in the Japanese movie industry are a dime a dozen; however, it is still the genre in the country the majority of great films come from, and it is easy to say that, “The Harbor Lights”, Mojiri Adachi’s theatrical debut, following a rather successful career on TV, is one of those films.
The Harbor Lights is screening at Tokyo International Film Festival
Akari is a third-generation Korean resident in Japan born in Kobe, the year of the Great Hanshin Earthquake. He is suffering from intense depression, which she mostly drowns in food, and the fact that her always embittered father is taking a divorce from her mother is not helping. In the meantime, her older sister wants to marry and has decided it would be better for her if she and the whole family take Japanese citizenship, something that makes the tension with the father even more intense.
Akari finds herself even more stressed, which eventually leads her to be hospitalized and move back in the cramped apartment her mother shares with her sister and younger brother. Things do not get better though, until the only friend she seems to have, suggests a clinic that deals with patients on a more individual level. Slowly but steadily, Akari starts to improve but her relationship with her father seems to drag her down still. Will she manage to overcome it?
Check also this interview
Adachi Mojiri directs a film about depression, but not only does he explore the theme from multiple angles, but also manages to add elements that both further the concept and highlight a series of other issues in Japanese society. In that regard, we watch a young woman feeling completely alone, not knowing how to handle her psychological issues, while feeling that particularly her father is constantly angry with her, to the point of not even wishing to have had her in the first place. That the hospital just administer medicine who do not help her in particular is another comment here, as much as how the personalized therapy she receives in a smaller clinic, actually changes her life.
It is here that one of the best traits of the movie appears, as Mojiri does not present a triumphant story of someone who dealt with depression, overcame it and now everything is fine. Instead he takes a rather more realistic approach showcasing that therapy is slow, through very small steps, and even when things are better, depression is always in the next corner ready to take over. This constant struggle people who fight with such illnesses have to face is presented in all its pragmatic glory here, through a performance by protagonist Miu Tomita, in her first lead role no less, that can only be described as shocking. Particularly the scenes when she is in crisis will stay in the mind of any viewer, and particularly the one with her father, who is bound to touch anyone who watches it. I dare say that this is one of the best performance we have seen for quite some time, internationally even.
And talking about the father, the generational gap, particularly for generations that truly struggled in their life and now feel their kids are ungrateful, and their children, who do not understand why they need to feel they owe something just for being alive, is also explored in the most pragmatic but also impactful fashion. That this gap frequently becomes a chasm is explored too, as much as how dealing with such situations demands patience, understanding, and a will to communicate, sometimes not even with words. In that regard, it is also easy to say that Masahiro Komoto gives another outstanding performance in the role of the father, with every appearance he makes in the film, even just with his voice, being an anchoring one. Makiko Watanabe in the role of the therapist who has a significant impact in the protagonist’s life concludes the great performances here.
The cinematography follows the moods of the protagonist, being quite frequently dark and lighter as time passes, in an approach that works quite well for the movie. The editing results in a tempo that is relatively slow, but not in excruciating ways, while even the inherent lagging issue of Japanese movies is tamed here.
Through a powerhouse performance by Miu Tomita and the overall handling of the melodrama and the many impactful comments it makes, “The Harbor Lights” emerges as a truly great movie, definitely among the best of the year.
