Maborosi (Koreeda, 1995)

There is something going on in modern Asian narratives that is centered around unaccountable displacement and lost individuals. I will get to the heart of this mystery soon. Marborosi capped my weekend nicely. Its meditative disposition fit well with the David Lynch lecture on transcendental meditation I enjoyed yesterday evening at UCI. Experiencing moving images alone in a dark room is strangely soothing. My mind abandons daily chaos and embraces a newly focused whirl of psychic activity guided by whatever film found itself in my mail box.

The two Koreeda pictures I’ve seen were exceedingly tender, in line with the guided caution of most slow moving stories. I appreciated how realistic Maborosi was. The protagonist’s transition to a new life was organic. I didn’t immediately get the sense that she had been dumped in the most depraved situation possible. Her loss lingers, but it doesn’t eclipse her new environment. She is a detached participant. Her new husband isn’t a terrible man. The distance she keeps from him is understandable. The effusive denouement is mostly earned though slightly less effective than it could have been. Still, this is an exceedingly pretty and highly observant character study. One which moves as surely as the seasons and who’s transitions are nearly as seamless.