Maborosi

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Year Released: 1995
Rating: 1.0

After the strange passing of her grandmother and her husband's suicide years later, a young woman reassesses her life ... or mourns ... or does whatever it is the plot synopsis says she does. I'm going to be blunt: this is dangerously close to Sokurov territory: lots of pretty pictures but zero emotional connectivity (Kore-eda learned that with After-Life and Nobody Knows) and to even begin to suggest that this is about anything but stringing together some meticulously shot scenes of the beach or of hallways or of moody interiors is ludicrous. In fact, people are about as significant as the rock formations or darkening clouds - just figures in the landscape, faceless and hazy.