To live and forget: the limits of comprehension and remembrance in the feature films of Hirokazu Kore-eda

Abstract

Often regarded as one of the eminent humanist directors working today, Japanese

filmmaker Kore-eda Hirokazu has demonstrated consistent authorial intentions and

thematic orientations throughout his filmography despite the variety of styles – from

social documentary to period comedy – involved. Through in-depth textual analysis of

his narrative strategies and exhaustive research on the English-language literature

about the director, this study seeks to shed light on the first seven feature films in his

career. Commentaries by Kore-eda on his creative impulse and filmmaking method,

collected from both diverse sources of media interviews and insightful analyses

published in academic journals, are meticulously examined. By taking a formalistic

perspective, this thesis sets out to consolidate existing research in the field, while

providing a systematic study that builds upon authoritative investigation.

The study begins with an analysis of the filmmaking techniques utilised in

Maborosi and Distance, both contemplative narratives that seek to capture the

fragmented consciousness of the characters in mourning. With its seemingly

naturalistic composition, Maborosi nonetheless presents a partially abstract narrative

that is directly reflective of the grieving protagonist’s inner state. Distance, on the

contrary, offers hints to the possible cause of the family members’ plans to join a

religious cult and commit mass suicides – such as the emotional isolation in an urban

society – while providing a final plot twist that confirms the slippery quality of any

assumption. Both films imply that full comprehension of one’s family members is

impossible.

In the following chapter, the coherent authorial concerns in Kore-eda’s fourth to

sixth feature – Nobody Knows, Hana and Still Walking – are illustrated along with his

fascination with the process of forgetting. Kore-eda, who started out as a

socio-documentarist, borrowed a real-life tragedy as the framework for Nobody

Knows to construct a subversive take on the traditional perception of the Japanese

family, extending a decidedly non-judgemental view on the irresponsible parents and

celebrating the autonomy of the new generation. The solace of memory is highlighted

in the anti-bushido comedy Hana, which is interpreted as Kore-eda’s protest against

tradition and, by extension, the older generation. The director’s recurrent themes of

broken promises, failed expectations and forgotten family legacies are highlighted

with the slice-of-life domestic drama, Still Walking.

The thesis then concludes with an analysis of the fantastic representations of the

human condition in After Life and Air Doll, Kore-eda’s only two fantasy films to date.

His use of quasi-realist documentary style in After Life facilitates a largely

non-religious meditation on the importance of human co-dependence and recollection.

The film’s metaphysical setting is compared to the absurd existence pondered in

Albert Camus’s “The Myth of Sisyphus”, and its central premise – that the affirmation

of one single memory can validate a person’s entire existence – is compared to

Friedrich Nietzsche’s thesis of the eternal return. Also adopting the perspective of a

non-human protagonist, Air Doll extends Kore-eda’s perception of the depressing

prospects of modern life – substantiating the city dwellers’ pervasive sense of

emptiness, while constantly looking for the beauty of living.