Just watched it last night. we winced at the thunders,if not were freightened, especially when in most scences the whole family are literally whispering.
I have to say it is not the best family film i've ever seen, yet obviously it is among the top ones. The plot is deliberately planned, and in particular moments when Eriko goes back to her girlhood i can even observe some Hitchcockian traits. The director shows some talents in letting the son creating a CG landscape of the building on his Mac.
And yes, the problem is that it is all the way too deliberate. Both the director and the cemeraman never reveal anything without spicing it up with some trick: the swirling cemera at the beginning and the end, the gaudy but cold room in the love hotel, and the wired woman in the Beatle (is that a Beatle that the woman drives?)--all these little tricky gimmicks make people ponder on while watching, and remind me of the New Wave in its early years. Or possibly the whole scheme is disgned such only because it's an adaption, but that still cannot explain everything.
Anyway, you can see talent sparkling every now and then, and that make the film better than most of its peers. I personlly like Sacchin the Grandma. She's old but still cute and kinda elegant.And the theme by UA is also gorgeous.
