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Dare mo shiranai (2004)
Turning Rubble into Beauty
I went to the cinema to watch Daremo Shiranai,and have just returned from my second viewing only days later.And frankly, I would gladly go a third time.The storyline is fairly simple: four half-siblings are gradually abandoned by their mother in a flat in Tokyo -they are pretty much left to fend for themselves in a world that is oblivious of their existence.The plot strikingly reminded me of Virginia Andrews' Flowers in the Attic,though as far as my rusty memory of that book goes,I thought the movie drew out in a more silent manner,what with its considerable length,unfortunately seems to make it 'too slow'(i.e. boring)for many.Daremo perhaps may not enjoy the commercial success of its contemporaries(both my attendances saw not more than five spectators in a large cinema-hall,the only one playing the movie amongst dozens of modern cinema-complexes strewn around town),but its creation clearly constitutes a labour of love by director Hirokazu Koreeda,a love which,as of any great artist,he does not compromise.
Keiko,mother of four children from different relationships,wins her children's trust through her winsome manner,while depriving them of a normal life of school and friends.Their imprisonment in the flat is compensated with bribes in the form of gifts after an especially long absence,and promises,particularly for the elder two,of a better future(she is currently 'in love' with a rich man who will provide a life of luxury for them all).But both Akira,twelve,and his half sister Kyoko, ten,cannot help doubting if they can rely on her.They want more than anything to trust her,but how can they when she leaves them and disappears for weeks on end,only to spring up again in as sprightly a manner as if she were returning from a day at work.
Akira,being the eldest,was the only one allowed to 'be seen'(he is her 'only son' as far as the landlord's awareness)and therefore the only one allowed outside the flat,being entrusted by Keiko with buying the groceries and preparing meals.Kyoko,in charge of the laundering, must sneak outside into the balcony to run the washing machine.The two youngest,Shigeru of about six and Yuki,four,are instructed not to make much noise so as not to attract the landlord's attention.
Weeks,and eventually months go by without any sign of their mother. Money gradually wanes,water and electricity are shut off due to non-payment,and the children slowly outwear their clothes.The decline in their living conditions is slow but steady,yet through it all we witness the beauty they manage to create in a progressively decaying environment.The room is saturated with junk,overshadowed only by Yuki's crayon drawings(her only pastime).When their home seems to reach a point of being almost uninhabitable,Akira pulls out his siblings' shoes from the closet,and with a smile full of anticipation the four of them step out together for the first time into the sunlight,enjoying the sense of freedom,mirthful as any child skipping to the park on a Sunday morning.And they bring back a part of that glorious outside to their flat in the form of seeds,which they plant in their balcony in empty pot-noodle containers.They effectively manage to create beauty in their own little world of abandonment,not only in the form of plants but also through the warmth of their spirits.
During the length of the movie the children speak more through looks than through words.Words often fail a child,and Koreda shows us the fruitless attempts of Akira and Kyoko trying to express their frustration or getting through to their mother with words,as she circumvents their precarious protests with the unfairness of fluent verbal diplomacy,but not once looking at them and allowing the guilt to reach her.The children,after all,are not unaware of a sense of abandonment by their mother,and in the case of Akira and Kyoko the feeling becomes more confounding as they try to come to terms with it.Kyoko's whisper 'she smells of alcohol' as she passes by her brother, as if seeking reassurance,but mostly her wistful expression,tells of her broken desire to believe in her mother's love.Her timid smile as her mother takes on the adventure of painting her daughter's nails, though only managing to slop the nail-polish untidily over her nails and onto parts of her fingertips in her current state of inebriation, is a heartbreaking moment that speaks of Kyoko's longing to believe that her mother does care.That confused smile brought me back to Francie in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as she tried to make sense of her father's drunkenness and broken promises,..."if a man spent all his time trying to be like that,then no matter what else he did...it would be all right, wouldn't it?".Later on Kyoko drops the nail-polish bottle in a realization that that moment meant nothing more than just another of her mother's whims.So mostly Koreeda allows his camera to simply focus on the natural expression of the children, through looks and gestures,rather than try to pry from their lips emotions which they don't know how to translate into words.Even Akira's friendship with an older schoolgirl,Saki,who is relatively well-off but equally isolated from society,was founded on a simple and silent mutual acceptance of each other's existence rather than by meaningful dialogue.Saki becomes a part of their lives and they a part of hers,and her unhesitant and straightforward act of earning some money for them by going to a 'karaoke' with a man is a testimony of the deep value of friendship.
There are many beautifully poignant scenes in this movie,witnessed silently by Koreeda's unimposing camera,picking up little details of the children's innocent expression of life.As a friend of mine says, real life situations often don't lend themselves to pat solutions,and this movie doesn't intend to devise one.The last scene of four children walking away from the camera,to goodness knows what future,is charged with a mixed feeling of forlorn uncertainty and sorrow,but also with love,acceptance and optimism,all that's left when there are no pat solutions -and the will to make a garden out of the discards of their torn lives.After all,did the children ever have a different spirit?
Wuthering Heights (1998)
They changed the book too much!
I completely agree with the comments posted by the reviewer with the cryptic name of hpbfan8790 : this adaptation doesn't come close to the spirit of the book. I LOVE the book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and just had to get a TV adaptation. I live in Spain, and these things are not easily available here, but as I happened to be in Gibraltar this past weekend I scoured the video stores in search of an adaptation of this timeless classic. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be very popular, though at last I found this version. I sat through the first half hour and could just not bear it any more! I don't expect an adaptation for the screen to be as detailed as the novel on which it is based - that would be impossible - but I have seen a few adaptations of classics that do manage to capture the essence of the book, and at least do not contradict it (see the excellent LWT '86 adaptation of A Little Princess - for further information please contact me ) but in this version so many things were happening that were just not true! Eg, Mrs Earnshaw was alive when the Master brought the boy from Liverpool. And it was so, so rushed. And, dear me, the ages! Cathy and Heathcliff at least twenty-two and playing like children on the moors! They were supposed to be children in the book, that first time they intruded the Grange and Cathy was bitten by the hound! The setting though was nice, but that's about all. I realize it's a difficult novel to bring to the screen, but someone PLEASE do recommend a more faithful (and lengthy) version.
A Little Princess (1986)
An Inspiring Tale
Frances Hodgson Burnett's "A Little Princess" is one of the most fascinating and beautiful tales I have ever read;every scene has been wrought to delicately add meaning to the story and brings us to a deep appreciation and understanding of that unique character Sara Crewe whom we follow during her sojourn at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies,in 1880s London.
For nearly four years Sara Crewe was distinguished as the "show pupil" at Miss Minchin's,a time in which she was materially provided for with the finest extravagances, as she had been accustomed to in India.Having lost his wife during his child's birth, the wealthy Captain Crewe had prodigiously indulged his daughter, affording her a life of luxury.Despite her awareness as to her station,Sara was kind and generous,ever considerate to those less fortunate than herself.She was quick to befriend Ermengarde,a pariah amongst the other pupils because of her academic dullness, Lottie,the spoilt baby of the classroom for whom she became a surrogate mamma,and the ill-treated scullery maid Becky,who had never been shown a drop of kindness in her wretched life.Then,on her eleventh birthday, the fateful news arrived that her father had died,having lost his entire fortune in a speculative investment.Bereft of her only family and almost all her possessions,Sara found herself reduced from being the privileged pupil to an ill-used skivvy at the seminary.Nevertheless,she strived to bear her hardships and remain a princess on the inside.
As a complement to the book I recommend the 1986 TV-adaptation, which visually brought to life the characters of the story and the feeling of the epoch.The cinematography pictured plainly but effectively the conditions of living in Victorian London,depicting the crowded marketplace and murky lanes littered with paupers and street urchins who spoke cockney and scraped a living off the streets, in stark contrast to the higher society whose children rode in carriages and promenaded in the parks on clear days. And even details such as the houses, the seminary, and the view from the garret window,whence the howling of the bitter winter wind on the rooftops could be heard,were quite as described in the book.The screenplay also followed the book closely, adding new details,leaving out many others, but most importantly,never contradicting the story and nature of the characters as portrayed by Burnett.
The casting was picked to match,as closely as possible, the characters' descriptions in the book. Amelia Shankley was absolutely wonderful as the dark haired,contemplative Sara Crewe:not only did she look like Sara,but interpreted the part with such conviction, as if she were truly living the character, enduring her adversities with the complexity of a myriad of emotions that swelled in her young heart and pictured clearly on her sore-plagued face.But her eyes lit up immediately when she was approached by Lottie or Ermengarde,or any one she thought a kind soul, partly out of the comfort it gave her, partly because her proud little spirit would refuse to have it otherwise, but mostly because of her consideration towards others' feelings:she knew, because of her own craving for it, what the warmth of a kindly smile could do to kindle and cheer a lonely heart, and thus she afforded them with a conscious good will.
Maureen Lipman as the unaffectionate Miss Minchin was excellent as well-I couldn't have envisioned a better interpretation.Her authoritative nature,absolute conviction in herself, business-like mind, made her the unchallenged captain of her ship; she was a born leader, and relished conducting her crew with the correctitude she deemed right.She would ceremoniously give a speech to "her young ladies", as on Sara's birthday or before the Christmas dispersal of the pupils, and characteristically clear her throat when effectuating what she considered a rather jocular statement intended for the younger girls, as she did before announcing in an incidental manner her message from Father Christmas.A great touch that I thought went just right with her character.
My commendations go the rest of the cast as well,who did a wonderful job.All I can say is that I wish you share my good fortune in being able to experience for yourself this enchanting adaptation of one of the most inspiring,heart-warming classics.
Sara Crewe is a singular character, rare as one can imagine,yet close to all of our inner beings;I recognise in my childhood-self her musings as to chance being responsible for who we are, her notions of inanimate objects having feelings of their own, her wistful conceptions of the thoughts of others -strangers she viewed during her daily outdoor errands to whom she gave descriptive names and mentally befriended. She was extremely intelligent,haughtily aware of her superiority though she never behaved in a condescending manner which would manifest her superior status -rather,she assumed it as a responsibility.She was ever judgemental of her own actions lest they should hurt another's feelings.A proud little soul, during her tribulations we repeatedly read in the pages of the book how her determined mind curbs a fit of pique, or accommodates her bodily wants and her emotional grievances through fanciful imaginings of better possibilities, so that destitute as she is she still gives freely from her heart , even if all she has to give are dreams and reveries, as we see in the successive visits she receives from Lottie and Ermengarde in her garret.It is the least a princess can do. She swallows her pride when Guy Clarence(actually Donald)offers her his sixpence out of charity, so convinced is he that it will provide for her forevermore; she gives a beggar girl most of her buns when she herself is weak with hunger, for she sees in her a poor waif -one of the populace- hungrier and colder than herself; she worries about the suffering of the Indian Gentleman nextdoor and prays for his well-being, despite her own forlorn situation. And she wishes for his sake that the father of the Large Family, on his way to Moscow, finds the little lost girl.And her wish came true.