This is probably the only Japanese Film Foundation screening I will manage this year and thankfully it was a joy from start to finish. Having said that my viewing companion and I, men who some would now call ‘elderly’, found ourselves in tune with the film’s subject and certainly with the rural setting of his home in the mountains of Nagano in the North West of Honshu. The film appears to be an adaptation of a 1978 non-fiction book and one other source dealing with different growing periods over the year in the vegetable garden and in the surrounding woods. Although it is distributed by Nikkatsu, one of the longest surviving studios in Japan, it appears to be a genuine independent film, introduced in the credits sequence by its director Nakae Yûji who has made several films but also runs a cinema on Okinawa.
The plot is very simple – it’s a year in the life of Tsutomu, played by the actor Sawada Kenji. He lives in a spacious house and garden in the mountains with his dog. It’s not actually remote since you can drive up to the house and he has neighbours, including his mother-in-law. Tsutomu writes, gardens, forages and cooks, drawing on his childhood experience of temple food as a novice Buddhist monk. The film is divided into ten chapters representing ten months (February-November), each with a different meaning about the natural world and the food it supplies. The last two months December-January are the Winter solstice months when snow covers the ground. Tsutomu’s seemingly idyllic existence is punctuated by interactions with his editor, the young woman, Machiko (Matsu Takako) who drives up to see him, ostensibly to check on his writing to a deadline but also to enjoy his food. He visits his mother-in-law but is later visited in turn by his brother-in-law when the old woman dies. The high point of the film is the beautifully presented wake for which Tsutomu must provide food for what is a considerable funeral gathering, his brother-in-law and wife seemingly feckless. Fortunately Machiko turns up to help and the wake is a great success. There is high drama in the last section of the film and we realise that an almost solitary life in this setting is difficult for Tsutomu and he becomes quite philosophical about his own death.
In his attempts to write and his relatively few interactions we learn about Tsutomu’s childhood, sent to the temple because his family was too poor to feed him. His father made coffins for the nearby crematorium. What happened when he left the monastery at 13 remains a mystery but Tsutomu has kept alive the sense of class distinctions which were evident in the crematorium even if all the the people who entered it left in the same way despite two separate entry doors for the rich and the poor. But these are not morbid thoughts, the seasons turn and life begins again in the Nagano mountains.
There was a healthy audience for the screening in Lancaster at the Dukes Cinema, which had not hosted the festival before and three more screenings will follow. The film has not been seen much in the UK or US and there are few responses online, but I note that at least one reviewer finds it too long (it’s 111 minutes) for a film of this kind. There are bursts of music at the beginning and end of the film announcing the arrival of Machiko but otherwise there is only diegetic sound and with the slow pace of the film, audiences not engaged by Tsutomu’s daily life might find some scenes ‘tedious’ as the reviewer in question put it. On the other hand Matsune Hirotaka’s camerawork is simple but effective in presenting the beautiful landscapes and local flora and fauna as well as the daily routine’s of the house. Much of the time the film works as a documentary about rural solitude but the interactions with neighbours and especially with Machiko are engaging and the central enigma is whether or not Machiko, who clearly loves the food Tsutomu cooks is persuaded to move in with him. But perhaps his memories of his wife who died 13 years earlier, but whose ashes still sit on his dresser, are a barrier?
All the food is prepared according to recipes associated with Shojin Cuisine (Buddhist cuisine). The food looks great and everyone should learn something about Japanese vegetarian food. Unfortunately, however, the notes given out accompanying the film seem to have been mistranslated. They discuss the ‘potatoes’ in the opening scenes but they are actually taro, small corms from the same family as yams. I enjoyed the preparation of daikon, the huge white radish and I was amazed at the bamboo shoots so cleverly harvested. I’m glad I ate before watching the film otherwise hunger pangs would have been very strong! All in all a very enjoyable screening. Thanks to The Japan Foundation Touring programme.
The Case for Global Film 