WATCH PARTY: Harmonium (2016) dir. Koji Fukada @ Mary Pretlow Library
Details
Haven't seen this one, but it's on a lot of lists of the top Japanese movies of recent years. (H/t cinephile Johan)
We'll be in the 2nd floor conference room, on the left as you get off the stairs/elevator.
RUNTIME: 120 minutes
RATED: Not Rated - mature themes and nudity
SYNOPSIS (via Kanopy): With his highly perceptive attention to character, director Koji Fukada creates this explosive family drama. Intended as a companion piece to the black comedy HOSPITALITE, HARMONIUM returns to the domestic sphere as it captures the collapse of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family.
Life for Toshio, his wife, and their younger daughter Hotaru carries on as usual until he hires the mysterious Mr. Yasaka, an old acquaintance dressed in white who has just been released from prison, in his workshop.
HARMONIUM captivated critics and audiences alike during the 69th Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.
BLURBS:
"This chilly tale of violent secrets and unvoiced misery relies heavily on the skill of actors who seem to know that one false move could tip the whole enterprise into comedy." - Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times
"You’d be hard-pressed to find a movie with as much simmering tension as Fukada’s. It takes the familiar trope of buried secrets, stunted remorse and unexplored passion and uses them like slow-acting poison on the supposedly ideal nuclear family." - Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times
"A chilling slow burner that’s as much about the breakdown of a relationship as it is a mystery, it skulks towards its bleak conclusion and stunning final shot." - Simran Hans, The Guardian