“Sumida, don’t give up!” cries out the girl to frustrated, angry young protagonist in the mad genius, punk auteur Sion Sono’s “Himizu” (2011). The film was planned to be live-action adaptation of a famous manga series, but Sono at the last minute, after witnessing the disasters of March 2011, turned it into cry from his heart to Japanese youth. Regardless of its missteps and narrative flaws, “Himizu” managed to underline the need for hope despite everything going wrong. The anger and outcry Sono showed in that movie persisted in his next independent feature “The Land of Hope” (2012), which was entirely dedicated to a Fukushima-like disaster and the consequences faced by common people. While, “Himizu” blamed the self-interest of older generations’ wrecking as one of reasons for the environmental ruin, “The Land of Hope” benevolently showcases younger and older generations’ feelings of fear, desperation, tenaciousness and hope, in the face of a disastrous rupture.
Among Sono’s prolific, dark and challenging body of works,
“The Land of Hope” seems to offer the most winsome experience. But, at the same
time it is far from being the insanely busy director’s best work. At 134 minutes,
it remains too long, overly sentimental at times and the direction is very
unsurprising (full of fixed flat shots and emotionally inconsequential long
takes). Nevertheless, two elements lend this slow-paced drama the watchable
factor: the way it brought to light the most pertinent subject in modern Japan;
and the fantastic performances of Naoko Ohtani & Megumi Kagurazaka, both
envision the loss, misery and fear of different generation women.
In “The Land of Hope”, Sono flawlessly induces a realistic
vibe to the proceedings by choosing to film in the deserted Fukushima. But,
Sono gives us a fictional location for the narrative: Nagashima prefecture. And
he treats Fukushima Daichii disaster as something that happened in the recent
past. The central focus is on the Ono family. The father Yasuhiko Ono (Isao Natsuyagi) runs diary and produce farms on the outskirts of a small town,
situated in the fictional Nagashima. He is helped by his son Yoichi (Jun Murakami) and daughter-in-law Izumi (Megumi Kagurazaka). The matriarch of the
family Cheiko (Naoko Ohtani) suffers from dementia, who often tends to her
flower beds and thinks of being in her early 20’s. A subplot involves Ono’s
neighbors, the Suzuki family, whose members are: father Ken, mother Meiko, son
Mitsuru and his girlfriend Yoko.
One day, a powerful earthquake disrupts the reactor at
nearby nuclear power plant. Media shows different, contracting reports about
the earthquake, tsunami and power plant disruption. Eventually, the government
officials show up forcing the population with 20 km radius (of the plant) to
evacuate. Ono’s farm and house just falls outside the government announced
quarantine zone, while the Suzuki family and the rest of community is crammed
into a bus to be taken into some medical center. Yasuhiko Ono questions the
government officials, cloaked in protective suits that how they know the
radiation will exactly stop spreading within 20 km radius. He questions whether
they should also evacuate. The officials’ asks him to be ‘patient’ and just
stay inside for now. Later, Yoichi considering the illness of Cheiko decides to
stay in the farm, but forces his son and daughter-in-law to move to a place,
with no danger of radiation. The younger couple Yoichi and Izumi moves to
nearby safe town, where she gets pregnant. But, the pregnancy only brings waves
of paranoia. Meanwhile, the young son in Suzuki family takes his girlfriend and
goes in search for her parents in the tsunami inflicted regions.
Director Sono develops the narrative to serve as a slap to
the face of bureaucratic incompetence and also as a tribute to the people, who
endured all the hardships & faced the consequences. The ultimately
pointless action of the government after the tragedy plus the happy-go-lucky,
falsely optimistic attitude of media programs is well emphasized. Sono leaves
out his trademark rage to take a more grounded approach in presenting the
people’s trauma. In this classical approach, Sono insists on themes of
nostalgia unlike his previous works. The narrative themes also include
politics, economic & cultural transformation and crisis management, but the
direction clearly lacks inspiration at many occasion to deal these themes in a
profound manner. Sono does realize some powerful sequences in portraying the
characters’ dread, and there are also well-earned tear-jerking moments towards
the end, especially when Yasuhiko and Cheiko dance in the snow-drenched,
post-tsunami landscape. He finds a poetic sense of beauty in the real,
devastated areas and places gradually recovering.
Izumi’s character transformation to radio-phobic woman
happens so suddenly, diffused with the ingredients of a soap opera. Her
paranoia that results in Yoichi’s emotional suffering is excessively drawn out
at times, losing the gathered impact. In one scene, Yoichi’s workmates blame
his wife for doubting about radiation in their town. Yoichi angrily screams to
them “A month ago you refused to boil rice with tap water. Have you forgotten?”
This impactful scene is overly drawn out in the later episodes, when Yoichi
confronts people giggling & murmuring about his wife’s paranoia. In few
other occasions, Sono does flawlessly etch out the narrative’s bittersweet
nature. The scenes depicting the relationship between older Ono couples are
effortlessly affecting, and at times remind us of the animated apocalypse fable
“When the Wind Blows” (1986). Although Mitsuru & Yoko subplot adds to the
narrative flabbiness, it withholds one excellent, surrealistic Sono moment.
When the young lovers glimpse into the desolated town, they come across two
ghostly kids, remembering the old days of listening to ‘Beatles’ and asks the
couple to go forward ‘one step at a time’. This eerie scene feels like a fine touch to
the ghost town and also strongly suggests the central theme of film – hope. The
performances from veteran as well as younger actors are mature and sensitive.
And, despite lacking in pace and tension, Sono never designs the circumstances
to be exploitative or preachy.
Trailer
Sion Sono’s “The Land of Hope” (134 minutes) is a family
drama that documents the ravaged landscape and tragedy of nuclear fallout.
However, its robust themes plus the nightmarish views aren’t fully realized due
to the uninventive, flat execution.
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