Maborosi (Japan, 1995)

Yumiko and Ikuo are a young Osaka couple who have a new baby. One day Ikuo is walking along the tracks and is hit by a train. It seems like he may have done this deliberately yet there is no apparent motive. A few years pass. Yumiko agrees to an arranged marriage with a widower, Tamio, and she and her son Yuichi move to Tamio's house in a rustic village by the coast.

Maboroshi no Hikari (a.k.a. Maborosi) was directed by one of my favorite film makers, Hirokazu Koreeda, so before seeing it I had high expectations on the camera work. I was not let down. Most scenes are done with only a fixed camera, just like Yasujiro Ozu, with no movement and the sequences that are done with only one take makes me drool. The setting also seems to suit Koreeda like a glove; the sea, the small village by the coast and the desolate beach all gets filtered through his lens. He's a master at examining still, ordinary life, but never letting go of that melancholy underneath.  

The story is very somber, with little to no answers after a man's suicide. A personal, moving drama all around. 

Genre: Drama