Saturday Matinee

Against my usual grain, I headed for the city on Saturday and ambled towards the Irish film Institute. The choice was between a Japanese film, Hirokazu Koreeda's adaptation of Akimi Yoshida's Umimachi Diary, Our Little Sister, or yet another Divine Comedy which, according to Tara Brady of the Irish Times, "Ought to be too daft and random for its own good."

I decided that it probably was
And opted for the "idyllic cricket serenaded beach town" of Kamakura, on the outskirts of Tokyo where I was enchanted by the rituals, scenery and culture of the Kouda sisters who welcomed their recently orphaned half sister to their delightful secluded home, replete with plum trees and a stock of plum wine.

Here a drama unfolds. But the beauty in the film for me was its understatement.
Emotions are deep and the undercurrent of feeling is powerful but the public airing of angst, to which we are accustomed, was refreshingly absent.

As a culture we tend to value all out expression, soul baring at any cost and ad nauseam...
I am personally culpable ...
So this mode of behaviour,, restraint, respect, but not repression, was thought provoking.

I enjoyed too the meal-time rituals, the festival, the one carriage locomotive, the white bait on toast and, of course, the plum wine.

Catch it if you can.

www.irishfilminstitute