Chizuko's Younger Sister

The Kitao family has lost its eldest daughter. Chizuko died in an accident and a year has passed. Her younger sister Yayoi now sleeps in her room, uses her things and has moved into her class at school. One day she sees Chizuko. Her sister is there; she talks, she comments, and nobody else sees her. Yayoi tells no one. The parents carry their own grief and nobody in the house speaks of the death. Yayoi goes on talking with her sister and does not know when it will end. Nobuhiko Obayashi directs. The film is among those shot in Onomichi, the director's home town; he made several films there and they are spoken of together. What the narrative builds is not a ghost story but grief; Chizuko is not frightening and the film uses no genre element anywhere. The narrative stays with the younger sister's point of view and whether the elder is real is left open. Obayashi's visual games are in proportion here; the narrative proceeds largely through daily life. The family's silence is its hardest side; nobody speaks and the child carries it alone. The town is used in detail and the turn of the seasons is the measure of time. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese family drama and quiet narratives. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, little happens, and the subject is heavy.