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Movies / Upcoming / Still Walking
Still Walking

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Still Walking (2009)

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Reviews Counted:53

Fresh:53

Rotten:0

Average Rating:8.2/10

Consensus: Hirokazu Kore-eda's film may seem modest at first, but this family drama casts a delicate, entrancing spell.

Genre: Dramas

Theatrical Release:15-01-2010

Synopsis: Ryota is the 40-year-old son of the Yokoyama family. He has recently married a widow with a ten-year-old son from her previous marriage, who are joining him on a rare visit home. Only his elderly... Ryota is the 40-year-old son of the Yokoyama family. He has recently married a widow with a ten-year-old son from her previous marriage, who are joining him on a rare visit home. Only his elderly parents now live in the house, which once doubled as a flourishing medical clinic. The annex, a medical examining room still boasting a wall of pharmaceuticals, remains unchanged, though the patriarchal doctor has retired. Despite the unchanged outward appearances, everything has slightly aged. The family has gathered to remember Junpei, the eldest son, who died in a terrible accident fifteen years earlier. Ryota, an art restorer, has never lived up to his brilliant brother, who was supposed to take over the family clinic, and he remains uncomfortable with his father. He arrives home, determined to hide the fact that he is currently unemployed. His older sister, Chinami, has already arrived with her family and is cheerfully entertaining the extended family. Toshiko, their deceptively mild-mannered mother, emits a string of sarcastic remarks as she bustles around the kitchen preparing the family’s favorite foods. The scenes of the respective couples and family members alternately reminiscing and bickering around the food-laden table, will bring a family memory to everyone’s mind. Based on Kore-eda’s original screenplay, under his polished direction, all the characters come sharply to life, exchanging dialogue that both delights and tugs at your heart. As the film unfolds, brimming with compelling realism, it reveals the modest joys and gentle sorrows that accompany the realization that life must inevitably move on. The Yokoyama’s are a typical dysfunctional family, bonded by love as well as resentments and secrets. With a subtle balance of gentle humor and wistful sorrow, Kore-eda portrays just how annoying, and exactly how precious, family can be. --© IFC Films [More]

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, Kazuya Takahashi, Shohei Tanaka

Starring: Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, Kazuya Takahashi, Shohei Tanaka, Kirin Kiki, Yoshio Harada

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Screenwriter: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Producer: Taguchi Hijiri, Yoshihiro Kato
Studio: IFC Films

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Reviews for Still Walking

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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A delicate, devastating Japanese tragicomedy.

Full Review Source: Independent on Sunday | comment Comment
01/22/10
Nicholas Barber
Nicholas Barber
Independent on Sunday

while this film is full of all the bitterness, regret, jealousy, disappointment, deceit and awkward love that make up any family, it depicts these with a calm restraint and subtlety, excluding even the slightest hint of melodrama

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
01/20/10
Anton Bitel
Anton Bitel
Little White Lies

Subtle and multi-layered film-making with compelling performances.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
01/15/10
David Parkinson
David Parkinson
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Koreeda’s almost sage-like understanding of what makes modern families tick places him and this wonderful film in the league of Japan’s grand master, Ozu, and you can’t ask for higher praise than that.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/15/10
David Jenkins
David Jenkins
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A beautifully measured melodrama that owes much to Yasujiro Ozu’s Japanese classic Tokyo Story.

Full Review Source: Times [UK] | comment Comment
01/15/10
Kevin Maher
Kevin Maher
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is a higher order of storytelling, and this gentle, lovely film is impossible to watch without a lump in the ­throat.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
01/15/10
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

An acutely observed and tenderly rendered portrait of family, mortality and remembering.

Full Review Source: Daily Telegraph | comment Comment
01/15/10
Sukhdev Sandhu
Sukhdev Sandhu
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Koreeda’s big theme is the transience of all our lives, but he doesn’t make a meal of it. Instead, he essays a moving restraint that evokes Ozu’s vintage domestic dramas – no mean feat.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
01/15/10
Tom Dawson
Tom Dawson
Total Film

Full of the small revelations that make up everyone’s memories and regrets. It is beautifully acted too.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
01/15/10
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

utaka Yamazaki's photography and Gontiti's guitar score are as impeccable as the performances, but it's Koreeda's delicacy, wit and insight that makes this so intricate, poignant and truthful.

Full Review Source: Radio Times | comment Comment
01/15/10
David Parkinson
David Parkinson
Radio Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Limpidly shot, translucently acted, Still Walking steals up on you quietly and stays with you forever.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
01/15/10
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times

The writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who made the brilliant After Life, has the imaginative sympathy of a great novelist, unsparing yet not unforgiving in his examination of a family held together by habit, regret and, ultimately, an unspoken love.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
01/15/10
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

Told with a measured pace, Still Walking gently beguiles as it captures the tensions, the silly misunderstandings, love and lingering regrets that are present in all families.

Full Review Source: Daily Express | comment Comment
01/15/10
Allan Hunter
Allan Hunter
Daily Express

The film exquisitely observes this awkward truth with wisdom, artistry, humour and an understanding that love, respect and regret come as a package.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
01/15/10
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

A well made, superbly acted family drama that's definitely worth seeing, though it won't appeal to everyone.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
01/14/10
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

The fluid, unobtrusive camera work handles with equal ease moments of intense intimacy, the look in a child’s eyes or the silent expression of a couple about to go to sleep while also making the best of glorious open-air landscapes.

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
08/25/09
Screen International

Koreeda makes it worth our while to watch these people, allowing us to dig for nuggets of information, piecing them together, and learning something about the resilience of family bonds along the way.

Full Review Source: ReelTalk Movie Reviews | comment Comment
01/25/10
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
ReelTalk Movie Reviews

You leave this film with the sense of having spent time with real people with real-world problems.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
01/08/10
Robert W. Butler
Robert W. Butler
Kansas City Star

It's not the happiest, most upbeat of material, but screenwriter and director Hirokazu Koreeda finds a few opportunities to inject some welcome humor and lighter observational bits.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
12/25/09
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

[L]ike a big, deep, relaxing cinematic breath of fresh air and wonder and loveliness...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
12/17/09
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher
 
 
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