Beijing Watermelon

Shunzo runs a greengrocer's near Tokyo. A Chinese student comes in and asks for cheap vegetables; he has no money. Shunzo gives him a discount, then gives them free, then invites him to eat. The student brings his friends. Before long the shop becomes the centre of a group of students. Shunzo finds them housing, takes them to hospital, follows up their paperwork and neglects his own business. His wife Michi objects; the debts grow and the neighbourhood starts talking. Nobuhiko Obayashi directs. Bengal and Masako Motai are in the cast. The narrative rests on a real man; there was a greengrocer in Japan who helped foreign students for years, and the film tells his story. Shooting in Beijing had been planned for the last section; because of the events in China in 1989 that became impossible and the production had to change its plan. The closing was therefore shot on an empty set and the situation was explained directly to the audience; the narrative does not hide its own lack. The matter it works at is help given without return and what it costs a family; the film does not put Shunzo entirely in the right. Obayashi's visual games are limited here and the narrative is largely realist. The neighbourhood and the shop are built in detail; the daily work is inside the narrative. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese family drama and true stories. Who it is not for: the pace is uneven, the emotional register high, and the ending unexpectedly incomplete.