A few months ago serendipity brokered a meeting between me and an exquisite film from Japan entitled Our Little Sister. I was totally captivated so much so that I watched it again within days and bought the DVD as soon as it appeared. This week another film by the same director - who also, it appears, works on the screenplays of his movies - was released in London. I found it had already been written about in glowing terms here on IMDb and I noted with interest that the comments came from several different countries around the world, testifying to the universal appeal of this minimalist filmmaker. It's difficult to conceive that this virtually invisible style of acting co-exists in the world of, say, Robert de Niro, Dennis Hopper, etc, where the goal seems to be last one to be sectioned is a sissy. After The Storm is yet another sublime essay about ordinary people coping with everyday traumas or not, as the case may be. Though it's churlish to single out any one actor it's equally hard not to wallow in the beautiful performance of Kirin Kiri as the mother/grandmother coping with the dysfunctional son and his fractured family. A true gem.
Review of After the Storm
