Of Flesh & Blood: The Cinema of Hirokazu Kore-eda
Please note : this season finished in May 2019
Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda ranks among most acclaimed directors working in cinema today. Each of his films is marked by a subtle dramatic touch, a gentle yet assured feeling for the profundity and emotional charge of everyday life, and an enduring fascination with the role of the family in contemporary Japanese society.
His mastery of the family drama have led to comparisons with another Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, but Kore-eda’s social realist underpinnings, diversity and understated artistry mark him out as a one of cinema's great humanist filmmakers in his own right.
Throughout April and May, join us as we revisit 12 films spanning nearly 25 years of this extraordinary director's magnificent career so far.
Read morePrevious screenings & events in this season
After the Storm
classified PG S Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
A powerful story about a broken family and a father's dogged attempts to glue it back together, Kore-eda’s funny, accessible drama is as immense in feeling as it is small in scale.
Still Walking
classified U S Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
A career highpoint for Kore-eda, this lyrical and profoundly moving family reunion drama is one of the director’s most personal works to date, created as a tribute to his late mother. It depicts one summer’s day in the life of the Yokoyamas, gathered together for a commemorative ritual.
Our Little Sister
classified PG S Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
An exquisitely nuanced family drama, Our Little Sister is Hirokazu Kore-eda’s heartfelt tale of a trio of adult sisters who take into their care the teenage half-sister they never knew they had following the passing of their absent father.
Shoplifters
classified 15 S Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d'Or-winning masterpiece examines the forces holding an impoverished family together on the outskirts of Tokyo. A brilliant and audacious film, this study of family trauma and fear of poverty is one of Kore-eda’s very best.
Nobody Knows
classified 12A S Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
Based on a true story, Kore-eda’s highly acclaimed Nobody Knows charts the abandonment by their mother and slow descent into feral degradation of four children in a small Tokyo apartment.
Like Father Like Son
classified PG S Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
A touching, understated examination of nature vs nurture, Kore-eda’s hugely rewarding family drama focusses on the reaction of two separate families from different social spheres to the discovery that their respective children were accidentally switched at birth.
A life-sized blow-up sex doll magically comes to life, buoyed by Korean star Doona Bae’s beguiling lead performance, in Kore-eda’s sweet fantasy-romance, based on the manga series Kuuki Ningyo by Yoshiie Gōda.
Hirokazu Kore-eda won Best Director 1995 Venice Film Festival for his brilliant debut feature, which follows a widow’s coastal relocation and efforts to rebuild her life after her spouse takes his own life.
The Third Murder
classified 15 S Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
Making a departure from his usual gentle family dramas, Kore-eda turns convention on its head to create a captivating and unknowable puzzle in this complex courtroom murder mystery.
Inspired by the real-life mass homicide committed by the Aum Sect in Japan, Kore-eda’s Distance grapples with the impenetrable mystery surrounding a suicide cult’s mass killing and the relatives of those involved who meet on the anniversary to contemplate their loved ones’ deadly actions.
After Life
classified PG S Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
Arguably Kore-eda’s masterpiece, After Life is set in a mundane, bureaucratic purgatory where the recently deceased are encouraged to choose their single happiest memory to spend eternity with.
Hirokazu Koreeda: an emotional odyssey
Hirokazu Kore-eda Retrospective
In this illustrated talk Watershed Cinema Producer and long-time Kore-eda devotee Tara Judah will embark upon her own emotional odyssey to celebrate Hirokazu Kore-eda's unique and masterful approach to emotional storytelling.
Moving, sometimes heartbreakingly sad, and often mysterious, this deeply considered, delicate family drama tells the complex story of two young boys dreaming of reunion following their parents' separation.