Be Sure to Share

A young man learns his father has been diagnosed with cancer. Father and son have not spoken properly for years; the man remembers him as hard, obsessed with sport and distant. As the illness advances, the son starts to notice symptoms in his own body. The film is not interested in the illness. It is interested in the order of things left unsaid: its question is simple and merciless, when did this father and son last really talk. When the answer comes it is no comfort. The form is calm: fixed camera, long scenes, low tempo. A language entirely different from Sion Sono's known excess. Sono made the film out of his own father's illness and said so openly; it is remembered as the most personal and quietest work in his filmography. That a director known for extremity resorts to none of it here sets the film apart. Ryohei Kurosawa, a grandson of Akira Kurosawa, plays the son, with Eiji Okuda as the father. Who it is for: viewers curious about the unknown side of Sion Sono and quiet family drama. Who it is not for: anyone expecting his usual shock. The film is very slow, long, and almost without event.