Directed by: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Released: 2008
Run time: 120 minutes
Certificate: 12
View trailer on Youtube: Click here
A seemingly ordinary family slowly disintegrates after the father loses his job
The film centres on Ryuhei (Teruyuki Kagawa), a loyal and energetic company man who loses his job as part of a management shakeup. Desperate to avoid the humiliation of admitting this to his wife, Ryuhei leaves the house every day in his suit, and spends his time queueing for free food from a charity and lingering in a cheerless concrete oasis with other jobless men.
His wife soon suspects what has happened and must now shoulder a grim new domestic burden of keeping silent. Their eldest son infuriates his father by applying to join the US military as an international volunteer. The couple's younger son, forbidden on financial grounds from learning the piano, sneaks out to buy lessons with his lunch money.
Dramatic events occur that demonstrate how a routine, once broken, cannot easily be repaired.
