Close-Knit
It’s 4:35 AM and I had to stop myself from giving this movie a round of applause right now. Just when I thought I had seen it all from Naoko Ogigami, she goes and makes this movie and it’s just absolutely perfect in every way. It’s like a Kore-eda movie with some of Ogigami’s signature magic as well. This film does a really good job at showing the simple difference between one that loves and cares and one that hates and neglects. Eiko Koike’s character is a heinous human being who never seeks to understand what she does not and as a result her son suffers for it. Tomo is taken into a lovely situation where she is giving a loving mother and father while her mother has decided to run away and neglect her. I really have a lot of smoke for bad parents, and people who just don’t take care of their kids, I’ve seen it with so many of my friends over the years, it really frustrates me. We see many clear examples of good and bad parents, and some people still choose to believe that being a stupid bigot is the right way to parent and the mindset you should raise your child with. Certain scene around 50 or so minutes in was just incredible and Ogigami genuinely is really good at hitting those moments that click. That moment was certainly the one, however I think this movie clicked like in the literal opening scene showing Tomo’s living situation and the little trash bin filled to the top with konbini onigiri wrappers. In fact this whole movie was that moment where it “clicks” in an Ogigami film, it just had to have one where it clicked even harder. Ogigami here has had what I can only assume is her magnum opus, and it’s truly among the best films to ever be made on this earth. People genuinely do not appreciate films like this enough. Rinko is among the best mothers in cinematic history for sure. Ogigami always handles all her films with care and she always makes the right choices. Whenever I am watching a movie and think I know what is about to happen in a scene, I usually like to think of the better or worse outcome and it just feels like Ogigami always chooses the one that I would prefer at all times.