Ošin

I have to admit that I almost didn't recognize Inagaki Gorô here – that's the biggest surprise of the film. The story of little Oshin is very well known in Japan; after all, it comes from one of the longest and most watched asadoras that was broadcast in that country during the morning hours. We find ourselves in a dark time, just after the war with Russia. The big cities were slowly becoming like the West in their appearance, facilities, and population, but the countryside was still living in the spirit of feudalism. The seven-year-old heroine Oshin, played perfectly by Hamada Kokone, is sent to work for a foreign family so she won't be a burden at home, and at the same time so she can have a better life. Which doesn't quite work out. Fortunately, on her journey to discover that women are great warriors and work their asses off not for themselves but for others (husband, children, ...), she also meets the interesting character of a deserter who brightens up her life for a while. Unfortunately, this episode can't end well, as it would be out of place in this film. It's certainly an interesting look at Japanese society at the beginning of the last century. It's dirty, with dialects, injustice, and also with glimpses of "old" Japan, such as in the form of Tanimura Naka (the grandmother who takes Oshin under her wing midway through the film); it still reeks of samurai principles and wisdom. So it will surely be no coincidence when the deserter reads to Oshin from Natsume Soseki's I Am a Cat (Wagahai wa neko de aru). A somewhat complex film, with a simple plot, but it reeks of Japaneseness to the point where it may be very hard for Western viewers who know little or nothing about Japan to digest and, more importantly, to find "something more" in it. Perhaps it would not be a bad idea to do some studying and then watch the film, it will certainly take on a new dimension. Without knowledge, it's just a film about a girl having a hard time. (2014-04-19)