Moving

Renko is in her last year of primary school. Her parents are separating. Her father leaves and she stays with her mother. Nobody asks her anything; the decision has been made and she is informed. Renko does not accept it. She goes to her father's new flat, picks fights with her mother, makes plans to bring the two together. Then she arranges a family holiday; the three of them will go to the lake. It ends badly. Renko runs away. There is a fire festival near Kyoto and she goes there. Shinji Sōmai directs. Tomoko Tabata plays Renko, Junko Sakurada her mother and Kiichi Nakai her father. It is a Japanese production, made in 1993. Sōmai is known for long takes; the scenes run without cutting and are built through camera movement. The matter it treats is a divorce as a child lives it; the film gives no weight to the adults' reasons. The narrative does not make Renko likeable; she shouts, she lies, and she wears the people around her out. The last section leaves realism and turns into something like a rite. The film was little known abroad for years and was shown again after later restorations. The narrative does not settle into the shape of the Japanese family film and gives no scene of reconciliation. Its limit is pace; the narrative is long, there is little event, and the ending symbolic. Who it is for: viewers who like Japanese cinema and drama from a child's point of view. Who it is not for: it is slow, demanding, and the ending closed.