Hirokazu Koreeda's After The Storm is a mature, nuanced study of paternity, accountabiliy, and personal growth, detailing the life of Ryota, a one-time prize-winning novelist whose become completely adrift, dwelling on his past successes while never looking towards the future, stuck in a perpetual state of self-inflicted doubt. A man who has effectively given up on life, Ryota's whole existence has become one based in deceit, a character who even lies to himself in a sense, pretending admirably to still be working towards his goal of rekindling his passion for writing, though he really spends nearly every dime he makes gambling, often having to ask his aging mother for money just in order to pay child support to his ex-wife. With the recent death of his father, a man who himself neglected his family, becoming utterly-infatuated with the quick score in life, Ryota begins to renew contact with that of his ex-wife and young son, Shingo, though his years of bad behavior, deceiit, and neglect, make it extremely hard for Ryota to reseize control of his life. A touching and empathetic character study of one man's struggle to put his life back together, After The Storm is an intimate yet grandoise study of the human condition, a film that has an existential quality to its simple, yet effective family drama story, one which captures the pursuit of happiness as it relates to being the person one envisions. After the Storm details the necessity of personal growth, detailing how we as individiuals are always evolving, exhibiting how it is never too late to attempt to fix past mistakes, with Ryota's struggles to reconnect with his young son being rooted in his own sense of defeat, blaming his environment for his failures rather than taking personal accountability for his actions. After The Storm on some level is about the importance of accountability, being a film that is empathetic to a deeply-flawed individual in Ryota while simultaneously capturing his lack of resolve. He is a man who simply isn't dedicated to being a better person for much of the film's running time, a man who struggles desperately to overcome his perceived weaknesses, and past failings as both a husband, father, and son. Koreeda's film never drifts into sentimentality, being an honest and heartfelt film about a flawed character, one thats tonally extremely well balanced, managing to be charming and whimsical at times while still succeeding in delivering some profound and universal truths about humanity in its deconstruction of a broken man whose deeply damanged by his failings. Through this characer study, Koreeda's After The Storm is a family drama that touches on the complexities of life, happiness, and connection, exhibiting the ever-evolving state of shared connection, detailing how it is never too late to become a better individual, regardless of past mistakes.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|