Still Walking (2008)

Film: Still Walking

Director: Hirokazu Koreeda

Country: Japan

Released: June 2008

Runtime: 114 minutes

Genre: Drama

Studio: Cine Qua Non

Influenced: Bong Joon-Ho, Barry Jenkins, Ritesh Batra, Joanna Hogg, Alfonso Cuarón

Still Walking is very much in the family drama tradition ("shōshimin-eiga") of two of Japan's most revered directors, Mikio Naruse and Yasujiro Ozu, who pioneered this genre. However, Koreeda has said that understanding the methods and cinematic style of Ozu is a lifetime project he's still working on, and that he feels Naruse is a more direct and obvious inspiration on his work. Naruse isn't so well-known internationally, partly due to the difficulty of getting hold of his films outside Japan, but movies like The Song Lantern (1943), Repast (1951), Floating Clouds (1955) and Yearning (1964) often rank high in the regular "greatest film" polls by the country's oldest cinema magazine, Kinema Junpo. Still Walking is also part of a wider global cinematic tradition of family reunion dramas, from Secrets & Lies (1996) and Festen (1998) to The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) and Un Conte de Noël (2008), characterised by dysfunctional relationships, suppressed emotions and dark secrets.

Koreeda conceived the film out of family grief, following the death of his own parents, which stirred up various emotions including feelings of filial inadequacy, which are played out in the film by the character of Ryota (Hiroshi Abe). Abe is one of several actors that Koreeda has used in multiple films, and he plays a similar character to Ryota in the director's almost equally brilliant family drama, After The Storm (2016). In Still Walking, Ryota is an art restorer who has recently married a widowed single mother, a fact that causes the open disapproval of his father, Kyohei (Yoshio Harada), and little response from his neurotic mother, Toshiko (Kirin Kiki). Harada was an actor better known for starring in yakuza films, and he's gruff and prickly manner suits the role well. The film revolves around a family gathering to commemorate the death of their eldest son, who drowned 15 years prior. One of the core themes of the film is how we carry on in the shadow of loss, and Kyohei makes no real attempt to hide the fact that his favourite son has died, while Toshiko remains deeply embittered by the tragic event.

Tensions rise as family members confront past grievances and unspoken emotions. Still Walking's narrative is character-driven, focusing on the intricacies of interpersonal relationships over a 24-hour period, and one of its greatest strengths is its dialogue. During the meal scene, and a conversation that is full of sly digs and emotional subtext, we can see beneath the long engrained patterns and rituals of domestic life (what Koreeda calls the "calm sea"), and notice the ripple effect of the waves of past memories and disappointments. Koreeda employs a minimalist and observational style, emphasising naturalistic performances and quiet moments to capture the subtleties of human interaction. The film's pace is deliberate, allowing the audience to immerse themselves in the characters' emotional landscapes. The director even conducted extensive interviews with his own family members as part of the preparation for the film, to infuse it with a sense of authenticity and autobiography. 

Still Walking received widespread critical acclaim, including the Asian Film Award for Best Director, as well as a nomination for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, helping to boost Koreeda's international profile. The movie stands at the intersection of his filmography, coming after a period of genre experimentation that included After Life (1998) and Nobody Knows (2004), and marking the beginning of a new phase of intense family portraits with absence at their heart, including Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters (2018). Often Koreeda is viewed as being the inheritor of the mantle of Ozu – and in Still Walking there are moments that are reminiscent of the great director, such as the cut to a passing train to allow for a moment of reflection – but there are notable differences in his movies too, such as the lack of any conventional notions of the nuclear family. In later movies such as Our Little Sister (2015) and Shoplifters, domestic setups are characterised by missing family members, and Still Walking’s nuanced portrait of three generations of Yokoyamas is as close as the director gets to the Ozu tradition. In fact, the film's title, Still Walking, refers to the lingering presence of a deceased family member and the idea that life goes on despite the loss.