The Sakai's Happiness (Screen Daily Review)

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http://www.screendaily.com/story.asp?st ... 201&r=true

The Sakai's Happiness (Sakai-ke No Shiawase)
Dan Fainaru in Pusan 18 October 2006

Dir/scr: O Mipo. Jap. 2006. 102mins.

Debut film-maker O Mipo may find that The Sakai's Happiness, her laudably understated approach to family life in a provincial town, will find favour with critics but alienate many potential audiences. Keeping at all times within the boundaries of low-key drama, it’s the sort of feature that might strike impatient viewers as too shy for its own good, restraining emotions which would usually see the light of day.

Despite some acting that verges on the mute, O Mipo nevertheless paints an often moving drama that combines coming-of-age crises and family breakdowns. Specialised arthouse audiences are likely to respond best, although festivals may debate whether they trust their crowds enough to serve them this kind of dish.

Terumi (Tomochika), whose first marriage came to a tragic end when her husband and older son died in an accident, has remarried after several years to Masakazu (Yusuke Santamaria), an out-of-town man.

The couple has two kids: Tsuguo (Morita Naoyuki), a 14-year-old son, from Terumi's first marriage; and Hikaru (Nanami Nabemoto), born from the second. All in all they are a presentable, but by no means exceptional, lower-class family who seem to have nothing serious to worry about.

But look closer and strains can be perceived. There is the uneasy relationship between stepfather and stepson; the problems between husband and wife; and the son’s morose and adolescence crises at home and in class, particularly with girls whose tentative advances upset him.

All this material is introduced step by step, with an unobtrusive camera which looks attentively but never overtly intrudes into any of these lives.

The friction becomes more pronounced when Masakazu decides, some 40 minutes into the film, that he is gay and moves to a friend's house. Terumi is too hurt to argue but Tsuguo, who has never really taken to his stepfather before and always refused to treat him as an actual parent, is shocked out of his teen surliness by the unexplained departure. He demands an explanation for what has happened and starts examining the world around him.

In the process Tsuguo discovers some of the less appealing aspects of adult life, including his grandfather's senility and the truth about his mother's marriages. It all results in the teen radically changing his attitude towards his stepfather.

The shadow of past Japanese masters is very much in the air here, but O Mipo has some way to go before she can come close to Ozu. The ending is probably the picture's most serious flaw, resorting to an artificial solution to what appears to be a tragic set of circumstances. In the process the script loses its credibility, and instead of faithfully sticking to simple, straightforward realism, sinks into melodramatic cuteness.

It could be argued that the screenplay’s treatment of homosexuality as whole falters, and that it ultimately proves to be a faltering dramatic device whose impact on its characters is never dealt with properly.

But such drawbacks should not detract from some of the evident qualities of The Sakai's Happiness. O Mipo does prove herself a keen observer of small details in the relationships between the characters, reflected through such scenes as the feud in the wife's family to which her husband responds with an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

Other telling sequences include a teacher sharing with her class her happiness at being pregnant; and the moving conversation between Masakazu and Tsuguo in the hospital, when the former shyly tries to refer to himself as his "father" and then corrects himself every time.

Tomochika and Yusuke Santamaria (who appeared in Kyoshi Kurosawa's Doppelganger) offer some subtle insights into their parts without ever forcing a note, while Morita Naoyuki identifies with the adolescent confusion of his role.

All technical credits are satisfactory, although the tendency to distinctly lower background sound during conversation is a bit too obvious.

Production companies/backers
Be-Wild
Stylejam
Television Osaka
Take It Agency

International sales
Be-Wild/Stylejam

Executive producers
Masaaki Wakasugi
Naoki Kai

Cinematography
Tokusho Kikumura

Editor
Hirohide Abe

Music
Masayoshi Yamazaki

Main cast
Morita Naoyuki
Tomochika
Yusuke Santamaria
Nanami Nabemoto
Mari Hamada
Takuya Kurihara
Mitsuki Tanimura
Hidekazu Akai
Manami Honjyo
Noboru Takachi
Masaki Miura