Director: Nobuhiro Suwa
Year Released: 1999
Rating: 1.5
A restaurateur (Tomokazu Miura), who lives with his girlfriend (Makiko Watanabe), discovers his ex-wife has been in a car accident and will be in the hospital for an extended period of time, so he's given the job of caring for his son (Ryudai Takahashi), much to the dismay of his gal pal. Suwa allegedly improvised a lot of this with his actors, but to me it's like the wrong kind of improvisation - it doesn't come across as spontaneous or all that personal (thanks to Suwa's 'distance' from the events) and scenes are shapeless and rambling. Watanabe can be seen complaining in the beginning about being unhappy with (a.) not being consulted about having to care for the boy and (b.) the prospect of being a temporary surrogate mother, even though the kid is not exactly a serious problem-maker, and she continues complaining until the very end when the boy leaves. The likes of Cassavetes, Elaine May and Mike Leigh have been successful at using improv to enrich their movies and enhance cast interaction - Suwa's approach turns his movie into a chore.
