Akashi: Delicate Domestic Drama Recalls the Golden Age of Japanese Cinema

By Liam Lacey

Rating: B

Is it possible to recreate the effects of the sublime tearjerkers of golden age of Japanese post-war cinema in a contemporary movie set in the present day?

That’s part of the aim of Japanese Canadian filmmaker Mayumi Yoshida’s debut feature, Akashi. It’s an ambitious drama of love across the generations. With contemporary scenes of family life in boxy dining rooms and kitchens shot in black and white, the film it evokes the themes of Yasujirō Ozu’s 1950s delicate domestic dramas of silent suffering and dignified disappointment.

At the same time, it’s a narrative about a cellphone-wielding, Uber-hopping transnational millennial Vancouver-based artist named Kana Yamamoto, played by writer-director Yoshida.

While the rigorous Ozu eschewed flashbacks for most of his career, Yoshida uses them conspicuously. Scenes from her grandparent’s era drift from colour to dreamy, desaturated colour, suggestive of faded movie melodramas.

Akashi’s slippery temporal transitions are triggered by a phone call, a close-up on a painting, a photograph, a box of Japanese mandarin oranges, or the wrapper on a package of Japan’s famous Hi Chew candy. There’s little forewarning as to when Kana will transform into her childhood self, or to a decade earlier (also played by Yoshida) before she moved to Canada and her hair turned blonde.

During one of those flashbacks, Kana learns from her doting grandmother (a very sweet Hara Kino) that her post-war marriage was arranged by their families, as were the majority Japanese marriages before the 1960s. But the secret is that, through his adult life, Kana’s artist grandfather was in love with another woman, whose wealthy parents would not let him marry her. The habitually self-deprecating Grandma kept her silence, not wanting to confront her husband or tarnish his reputation.

When a box of mandarin oranges arrives at the Kana’s house as a funerary gift, Kana tracks down the sending address which leads her to the home of the regal mistress, Wakako (Chieko Matsubara as an older woman; Sayaka Kunisada in her youth), who lives alone in a traditional house with an elegant garden, wearing a traditional kimono and pinned-up hair (she really seems to have emerged from a period film).

Emotionally, she’s the mirror image of Grandma’s humble resignation. The film’s title Akashi means “proof” or “evidence’ in Japanese and refers to an early sketch the grandfather drew of his lover.

During her weeklong visit — between taking phone calls from Canada about a potential arts grant that will free her from commercial work — Kana helps the family prepare for the grandmother’s funeral. One day at a convenience store, Kana bumps into her heartthrob former boyfriend, Hiro (Ryo Tajima) who ditched her at the airport when she left for Canada a decade ago.

Their renewed encounter dips into rom-com cuteness (she knocks over merchandise while trying to hide from him). In long talks at the grandma’s vigil, or against a glittering Tokyo skyline, the couple rehash their broken history and potential future.

Compared to the bittersweet love stories of the grandparents’ generation, the contemporary love story feels like a formulaic romantic novel plot. I can see the cover jacket now: Tokyo Rain, Fire in My Heart: A single woman in her thirties, dissatisfied with her career, returns to hometown and re-encounters her old flame — but would he burn her again?

In fairness, Akashi was inspired by the personal experiences of Yoshida, who moved to Vancouver as a young adult and has worked as an actor (The Man in The High Castle). Conceived as a Vancouver Fringe Festival stage play a decade ago, Akashi became an award-winning 2017 short before the feature film was completed last year.

Judging by its run of festivals (VIFF, Whistler, Reel Asian Toronto), it’s a crowd-pleaser, where the mushier elements do not seem to be a barrier to enjoyment. Made with attentive craft, sincerity, and a novel formal strategy, Akashi has things it wants to express about women’s happiness, love, autonomy and art through the generations. I just wish it were clearer what those things are.

Akashi. Written and directed by Mayumi Yoshida. Starring Mayumi Yoshida, Hana Kino, Ryo Tajima, Chieko Matsubara, Kunio Murai, Shun Sugata, Bun Kimura, Sayaka Kunisada, Hiro Kanagawa, and Jess McLeod. Screening at Vancouver’s VIFF Centre November 13, 17 and 19, and in cities across Canada throughout November. Mayumi Yoshida will also appear at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival for a live table read of her next project, Homestaying.