FILM OF THE YEAR

SAWAKO DECIDES

Sawako Decides

Kawa no soko kara konnichi wa

Studio/Distributor: Avex Entertainment
Euro Space
Imagica
PIA
Tokyo Broadcasting Co
Tokyo Broadcasting System
USEN

Director: Yuya Ishii

Producers: Mayumi Amano Toshiyuki Wake

Screenwriter: Yuya Ishii

Cinematographer: Yukihiro Okimura

Art Director: Tatsuo Ozeki

Composer: Chiaki Nomura

Editor: Koichi Takahashi

Duration: 112 minutes

Cast: Hikari Mitsushima
Kotaro Shiga
Ryo Iwamatsu
Kira Aihara

Year: 2010

Synopsis

Sawako relocated to Tokyo five years ago. She is now employed in her fifth job, and is dating her fifth boyfriend, Kenichi, who she has met through work. Kenichi is a divorcee with a young daughter, Kayoko, from his previous marriage; Sawako struggles to connect with Kayoko and feels frustrated in her 'career', which remains on the lower rung of the ladder. When she receives news that her father, Tadao, has fallen seriously ill, Sawako decides to return home; her father owns a freshwater-clam-processing business, and Sawako quits her job in Tokyo in order to take care of the operation. Kenichi, who has also quit his job, goes with Sawako and brings Kayoko along, but there are some surprises in store for him with regards to his girlfriend's past – and the reason for her relocation to Tokyo – once the makeshift 'family' arrives in Sawako's hometown. Taking on the day-to-day responsibilities of running her father's company, Sawako has to deal with the disgruntled attitude of her father's employees, who do not see her as a suitable replacement even in a temporary capacity, while a rift develops between her and Kenichi due to meddling of a former love rival who still bears a serious grudge. When the family business is threatened with closure, Sawako rallies her resources to keep it running, while developing a more maternal relationship towards Kayoko despite the differences that have developed between her and Kenichi.

Critique

'I'm very much a sub-middling woman. Men always end up dumping me. It's because I don't have big breasts, like melons. So, without melons, I can't ask for too much.' Such is the outlook on life of Sawako (Hikari Mitsushima), a lowly Tokyo office worker who explains her acceptance of her social status to her similarly 'sub-middling' colleagues while sitting on the staff toilet, struggling with recurrent bouts of constipation. It takes a winning actress to pull off said toilet scene – not to mention two visits to a colonic irrigation clinic – within the first ten minutes of a film, and Sawako Decides has such a star in Mitsushima. Following strong showings in Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi, 2008) and Kakera – A Piece of Our Life (Kakera, 2009), Mitushima takes centre stage here, which is fortunate as Yuya Ishii's comedy-drama requires a leading lady of considerable charisma to make its rather 'sub-middling' message – that it is perfectly acceptable to aspire to be nothing more than resolutely average – sufficiently uplifting for a fairly mainstream audience. Sawako Decides is not a film that seeks to criticize the social order of post-bubble Japan, but it certainly comments on its class system. The social-economic hierarchy of Japan consists of five tiers: ue (upper), naka no ue (upper-middle), naka no naka (middle-middle), shita no naka (lower-middle) and shita (lower). Those who fall into the tiers of lower-middle and lower exist on incomes that are around half that of the national average, which allows for little social mobility and almost no political influence.

The lower-middle class is the tier to which Sawako belongs, a position that she accepts without complaint; 'But there's no other choice' and 'It can't be helped' are often-uttered responses to inconvenience or misfortune, suggesting that she is getting on with life without getting anything out of it.

As is often the case in Japanese cinema, it is a family crisis that instigates change, causing Sawako to not only quit her thankless city job and return to the home town that she fled five years before, but to realize previously-untapped potential. However, it takes some time for her to find her footing as manager of Kimura Shellfisheries, and Ishii delights in showing Sawako struggling to adapt to the daily routine; the singing of the company song in the morning fails to raise the spirits of the workforce, as they are clearly aware that the business is on the rocks, while Sawako's attempts to 'pitch-in' are not appreciated and socialising with factory employees proves to be especially awkward since one was once involved in a physical relationship with her father and another is a former classmate with a long-standing grudge regarding a 'stolen' boyfriend. Gossip is a part of life in both the big city and Sawako's home town but, while such idle chatter in the corporate world consists of a couple of co-workers ridiculing her choice of boyfriend, it seems as if the entire workforce at the family factory not only knows everything about Sawako but can barely-suppress their opinions about her 'chequered' past and recent return to the fold. Sawako at first responds to such treatment by slouching around in an apathetic manner and drowning her 'sub-middling' sorrows with cans of cheap beer, dealing with problems at home in the same way that she dealt with disappointment in Tokyo. Yet she begins to come out of her shell after reconnecting with her father, with Ishii offering the otherwise pent-up Mitsushima a much-deserved opportunity to cut loose in a stand-out scene in which Sawako delivers a belated riposte to her employees: 'I'm just a lower-middling woman, right? But who here can claim any better?'

Sawako Decides has a healthy sense of humour which results in both low-key amusement and laugh-out-loud moments. The latter mostly occur in a sub-plot involving a local fisherman's fling with a research student who finds the sight of someone doing physical, rather than theoretic, work to be, 'really cool'. Whether the comedy undercuts the life lessons or vice versa depends very much on the individual viewer due to the deft touch with which Ishii directs his screenplay. Sawako does not change her outlook on life but asserts her 'lower-middle' attitude in a manner that serves to pull together both her makeshift family unit and discontented workforce. 'It can't be helped' is replaced by the more optimistic, 'All I can do is my best', while she sends Kayoko off to the local school with the advice, 'You're nothing special, either, you'll just have to tough it out' and has the factory workers singing a new company song with the lyrics, 'Our work is tedious and boring, Because we're only lower-middles, But we enjoy our lives, We are all very happy.' For a film about a character at the crossroads, Sawako Decides ends appropriately with a desperate cry for guidance which subsides into a glimmer of resolve or even hope – a moment that speaks volumes about Mitsushima's ability as an actress. Surprisingly popular at the Japanese box office, Sawako Decides can be considered a commercial breakthrough for both Ishii – who already has five features to his credit including Rebel, Jiro's Love (Hangyaku Jiro no koi, 2006) and Girl Sparks (Gâru supâkusu, 2007) – and the Pia organization, whose films have always appealed to festival audiences but have invariably floundered whenever they have received any kind of general release. The success of Sawako Decides proves that, during a particularly difficult period for the Japanese independent sector, it really is best to just 'tough it out'.

John Berra

FESTIVAL FOCUS

JAPAN CUTS

My initial experience with New York City's historic Japan Society came in 2005, two years before the organization celebrated its hundredth anniversary. It was for a special film series curated by photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto entitled The Moving Image of Modern Art. This series, held in conjunction with the artist's Japan Society Gallery exhibit History of History, featured a diverse line-up of films produced between 1933 and 1973, including titles such as Blind Beast (Môjû, 1969), The Face of Another (Tanin no kao, 1966), Tokyo Drifter (Tôkyô nagaremono, 1960), The Water Magician (Taki no shiraito, 1933) and The World of Geisha (Yojôhan fusuma no urabari, 1973). Sugimoto himself contributed live benshi narration to portions of Kenji Mizoguchi's late silent film The Water Magician upon the theatre stage, a space that was shared with the society's other programmes spanning Performing Arts, Education and Lectures, through the years hosting such iconic figures as Kazuo Ohno, Tadao Ando, Yoko Ono, John Zorn, Ikue Mori, Tadanori Yokoo and Koichi Makigami. This multidisciplinary embrace of a relationship – a dynamic as that which exists between the people of America and Japan would ensure my regular attendance over the following five years. During this time I became familiar with the vibrant culture of film attendees and staff members by which this non-profit organization grew and is sustained: artists, businesspeople, film industry professionals, curators, academics, casually-interested viewers or fanatic evangelicals. Given this fertile environment balancing contemporary and traditional arts and New York's status as a hub for film exhibition and production, Japan Society would seem the perfect place for a festival of contemporary cinema.

The history of the Japan Society Film Program (known for a time as the Japan Film Center) effectively charts the history of Japanese film in the United States. The first film screening sponsored by the Society occurred in 1922 (a four-reel record of Crown Prince Hirohito's visit to Europe one year earlier), but the real story begins in the early fifties when the success of two films at the Venice Film Festival and America's Academy Awards – Rashômon (1950) and Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari, 1953) – provided foreign audiences with an introduction to Japanese cinema. In 1954, the Japan Society sponsored US premieres of Ugetsu and Gate of Hell (Jigokumon, 1953), and by 1972 regular film programming began in the organization's newly-constructed Midtown Manhattan exhibition space and offices. Highlights throughout the years include a 1981 retrospective of Akira Kurosawa's films (complete at the time) with an opening attended by Kurosawa, and introduced by Francis Ford Coppola following the success of Kagemusha (1980), produced by Coppola and George Lucas) and a full retrospective of the extant films of Yasujiro Ozu. Actors have also been celebrated, with a retrospective of the work of Toshiro Mifune, with the actor in attendance, while there also have been prescient series on the history of animation and horror films in Japan and Critic's Choice series by Donald Richie and Susan Sontag.

As a component of Japan Society's centennial celebration, JAPAN CUTS was established in 2007 by then Film Programme Officer Ryo Nagasawa under the supervision of Artistic Director Yoko Shioya with the tagline, 'Bringing a Sizable Slice of Japan's Dynamic Contemporary Film Culture to New York City'. This summer festival remains the largest North American festival devoted to Japanese cinema, complementing the two to three retrospectives and monthly programmes it holds regularly throughout the year in addition to special engagement premieres. Held from 5–15 July, the first instalment offered 17 features, the majority of which were international, American or New York premieres. The festival also offered a programme of shorts including selections of video art, a special evening for New York- and Japan-based film-makers and a programme compiled by the Nippon Connection festival of Frankfurt, Germany. Among the titles in the initial JAPAN CUTS line-up, Shinya Tsukamoto's first Nightmare Detective (Akumu Tantei, 2006) was of particular note, along with Masao Adachi's return to directing after a hiatus of over 30 years with Prisoner/Terrorist (Yûheisha – terorisuto, 2006). Miwa Nishikawa joined as special guest to present Sway (Yureru, 2006), as did Sion Sono for Exte: Hair Extensions (Ekusute, 2007) and Naoko Ogigami for Kamome Diner (Kamome shokudô, 2005). From the start, JAPAN CUTS has enjoyed mutually-beneficial collaboration with the New York Asian Film Festival (NYAFF), co-presenting a number of titles with this excellent summer festival, organized by Subway Cinema since 2002.

The 2008 edition of the festival ran from 2–13 July, and presented 19 features and over 60 shorts. Naomi Kawase's The Mourning Forest (Mogari no mori, 2007) opened the festival, with the director in attendance to introduce this and a handful of her personal documentary shorts. In its second year, the breadth of the selection as curatorial intent became apparent, presenting independent features such as Koji Wakamatsu's United Red Army (Jitsuroku rengô sekigun: Asama sansô e no michi, 2007), more broadly-popular pictures like Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 (Always zoku san-chôme no yûhi, 2007) and challenging documentaries such as Li Yang's Yasukuni (2008). The 2009 edition ran from 30 June to 12 July, and brought 17 features to New York City as well as collected shorts by the animator duo known as UrumaDelvi, who also provided the festival with its animated trailer. Popular in his first appearance in 2007, Sion Sono returned to the festival as special guest, this time presenting Love Exposure (Ai no mukidashi, 2008) and Be Sure to Share (Chanto tsutaeru, 2009). Other highlights included Jun Ichikawa's final, handmade film, Buy a Suit (Sûtsu wo kau, 2008), followed by a conversation with actress Momoko Mieda. Gen Takahashi attended to present festival favourite Confessions of a Dog (Pochi no kokuhaku, 2006) and Kazuyoshi Kumakiri presented his wonderful Non-ko (2008). 2009's instalment marked a development in the festival's format in reaction to New York audiences' preference toward feature-length films, cutting down on programmes of shorts to focus on a balance of traditional genres and budgets, engaging special guests and film-themed after-parties. 2010's festival would continue this shift toward an industry focus while expanding considerably in scale.

I am happy to have contributed to the Japan Society Film Program's 2010 season of retrospectives as well as the fourth annual JAPAN CUTS Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema, temporarily acting as Film Programme Assistant in support of the Society's small but resilient staff. The latest edition was in many ways the largest to date, presenting 24 feature films, three after-parties and numerous special guests between 1 and 16 July. Tetsuya Nakashima's Confessions (Kokuhaku, 2010) opened the festival and proved to be one of the most popular films in the line-up. The festival closed with Hitoshi Yazaki's charming Sweet Little Lies (Suîto ritoru raizu, 2010), starring Miki Nakatani, Nao Omori and Juichi Kobayashi. Yazaki introduced the film and stayed for what became the longest Q&A session of the festival, at one point removing a teddy bear from his pocket like those created by Nakatani's character and introducing him as 'Mars', named after the God of War for the many battles he helped him fight during production. By this point, the festival had been in operation long enough to have seen the return of a number of films by the same film-makers and sequels of previously-screened titles. This past year's festival welcomed Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective 2 (Akumu Tantei 2, 2008), the precursor to which had been screened at the first JAPAN CUTS and Miwa Nishikawa's Dear Doctor (Dia dokuta, 2009), following the screening of Sway in 2007. Nishikawa's recurring presence is evidence of the rising stature of female directors in the industry, and dual entries by Yuki Tanada in the 2010 festival, as well as Satoko Yokohama's wonderfully-idiosyncratic Bare Essence of Life: Ultra Miracle Love Story (Urutora mirakuru rabu sutôrî, 2009) serve as examples of this trend, while also being some of the strongest pictures in the line-up.