March Comes In Like a Lion

Hitoshi Yazaki's 1991 Japanese film follows Ice, who brings her amnesiac older brother home from hospital. He does not want to go; when his sister tells him she is his lover he agrees, and the two begin living together. The subject is whether the lie can be sustained. Ice invents new details continually to protect the arrangement she has built, and the question of what happens if his memory returns holds the whole narrative taut. Yazaki keeps the pace very low and there is almost no dialogue; the flat in Tokyo is the only setting and the seasons pass. The cinematography is static and distanced; the film does not steer its subject emotionally. Who it's for: those who like Japanese independent cinema and minimal narrative. Who it's not for: viewers who do not want to watch a narrative about a sexual relationship between siblings; the film places it at the centre and offers no critical frame.