Eureka

A bus is hijacked in Kyushu. Most of the passengers are killed. Three survive: the driver Makoto and two siblings, Kozue and Naoki. Life does not go on after it. Makoto disappears and comes back years later. The siblings have been left without parents; they live alone in the house and neither of them speaks. Makoto moves in with them. Nobody describes what happened, nobody asks for help. Killings of women begin in the area and the police suspect Makoto. A fourth person joins them and a bus is bought. They set out. Shinji Aoyama writes and directs. Koji Yakusho, Aoi Miyazaki and Masaru Miyazaki are in the cast. It is a Japanese production. The film runs over three and a half hours. It was shot in sepia and colour appears only in the finale. It won the FIPRESCI and Ecumenical Jury prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. The matter it treats is the inability to speak after trauma; the characters say not a word for months and the film does not fill that silence. The narrative does not use the killings as thriller material and does not push the solution forward. The rural Kyushu landscape sets the rhythm and the shots are held very long. Its limits are length and pace; the narrative asks for patience and the plot is minimal. Who it is for: viewers who like slow cinema and Japanese independent work. Who it is not for: it is very long, very quiet, and the subject heavy.