Aruitemo Aruitemo (Still Walking)

In Brief

Hirokazu Kore-eda's new film is what the Japanese call a 'home drama', revealing everything that unites and divides one particular family in one 24-hour time-frame without a shred of melodrama. It chronicles a 24-hour reunion of the Yokoyama family; the two adult children and their families are visiting their elderly parents to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the death of their elder brother, who died rescuing a drowning boy. There are no 'dramatic' incidents and the tone is generally light and humorous. But during the day and night we see all that unites and divides this particular family - and makes it just like any other. The stern patriarch, a retired physician, still mourns his favourite son and intended heir, and doesn't hide his disapproval of his surviving son and daughter. The mother lets slip the odd remark which betrays the frustrations and disappointments of her marriage. The central character is the younger son Ryota, a forty-something picture restorer who has only just got married, an adult who has never quite grown up or felt at home in the family.