Thanks for the memories!

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Nice effects though.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

This movie won the Grand Prize in Cannes Film Festival. I didn't get it, as usual."Discovering your true identity through a journey" is in fact my favorite theme for movies, and this film at first seemed very promising with interesting characters and beautiful sceneries of the forest. However, as the movie progressed, I became more and more confused. I'm sure this is one of those movies that's supposed to make you think, but way too little information was given even for audience to use their imagination.I actually went back to read the plot synopsis after I finished watching the film (all confused), and realized for the first time the nurse had previously lost her child. There was a scene where an unknown man saying it's all your fault. Now that I think of it, he is probably her ex-husband blaming her for the dead child. No matter how you think about it, any movie that requires the audience to read plot synopsis to understand the plot is unacceptable as a film. There were many other things in this film that was just outright puzzling, but the movie ended without even attempting to explain any of it. I absolutely did not connect with any of the characters. While this film had an extremely beautiful cinematography, that alone is not enough to make it a great film as a whole. The screen also shook far too much. I understand this director used to be a documentary filmmaker, but that is totally unnecessary for a feature-length film.I actually really liked the female lead actress Ono Machiko, but the male lead had too much age difference that I just couldn't see them as a couple. That "campfire" scene was completely incomprehensible for me.It's very well-known that Japanese films that win prizes in Cannes rarely fit the typical Japanese tastes. I guess movies, especially at film festivals are considered to be art, so perhaps truly amazing works are not meant to be understood by an average viewer like me. Or maybe Western audiences simply see the Japanese as a mysterious group of people, and liked the mysterious couple in this film behaving erratically in the enigmatic forest.This film, like many other Japanese Cannes prize-winners, had disastrous user review ratings in Japanese movie sites. I really need to start heeding their advice and not expect too much from these movies.

It's all about grief here and finding back to joy in your life. Our main characters Machiko and Shigeki share something: They both lost someone they loved. "Am I still alive?" is one of the questions Shigeki asks at the beginning. Their relationship, or better, their friendship is going to give the answer to Shigeki's question. The Japanese director Kawese Naomi repeatedly uses long shots of trees or rice fields moved by wind. Maybe this observation of the nature should remind the viewer that this is how life is. Everybody will lose somebody in a lifetime, but nature carries on and so do we. Kawese doesn't use a plot as a drive for his movie, he uses a mixed atmosphere between sadness and joy, between loving and hating. Very important in "Mogari no mori" is also the sound track, that is dominated by sounds directly from nature. I had an exhausting day when watching the film, and it was hard for me to get lost in these pictures. I am interested how it works on a second viewing.

The attraction of indie to me is the feeling of "living" and quietness, the subtle human sentiments and emotions reeked from the ordinary stories in normal daily living. Mega-multi-million productions are stunning in many ways but they are too "drama", not living. We need indie as antidote.Since the 1990s, the world movie industry doesn't seem to produce many female directors and how happy we have Kawase, whose works mostly shot with Nara as backdrop. In the peaceful quietness, she is able to capture the meticulous subtlety of human touch and warmth.Young Machiko and old Shigeki are both bereaved with great sadness. One day they have an outing in the countryside and bad weather suddenly comes. Their journey is journey of healing as Shigeki is looking for the burial location of his wife Mako who passed away 33 years old. He wants to return to her as a means to cease his mourning. To me, the most touching episode is when they wade through the small brook which is suddenly flooded by rain water. The long-silent Shigeki, just like the abrupt influx rain-water, suddenly tells Machiko that the running water will not return to its source. It is a condolence and advice to this young woman whose baby has died: let bygones be bygones, people died, they died without any return. The speedy running brook and her fast running tears are important symbols of healing: they wash away her pain.The natural beauty of Nara is exhibited superbly with the actors' natural performance. By the way, it is the very first appearance of the 61-year-old amateur Shigeki Uda. Naomi Kawase just got to know him for very short time somewhere at her hometown while she was preparing for the shooting.

Saying honestly, when the movie ended, I felt tricked. As the two people stray off into the woods, I felt anxious on how they are rescued; felt anxious with Machiko, who without thinking follows Shigeki, an old man with dementia; and I thought 'Hey when you get lost in mountains, you should even go up to the summit…'. But actually the director is indifferent on such thrills. She expected the audiences to focus on the imagined scenery of the dementia patient and the care giver. That was why I felt tricked. Though not explained clearly, the reason why Machiko came to the care house, which is a renovated old farmer's house in mountainous village, might be a death of her son. Her husband blames her that if she did not loose her clutch of her son the son would have not died. One day when they had calligraphic exercise, Machiko wrote her name. Accidentally this made Shigeki recall his wife's name Mako. Mako died 33 years ago. Since then Shigeki lived in memory of Mako for very long years. Since then, mental connection between Machiko and Shigeki gradually grows.One day, Machiko takes Shigeki to visit Mako's tomb by car, but the car runs off on the way. It is so remote that mobile phone does not work to call for help. But from the place, Shigeki walks into the woods heading 'Mako's tomb', and Machiko has no idea but to follow him. Since then many things happen. At night, Shigeki feels chilly due to fatigue and coldness; Mako warms him naked. The next morning, Shigeki is going across dangerous river; Mako imagines it suddenly floods, and cries and cries until Shigeki comes back. This recalled me 'Sanzu no kawa', an imaginary river that separates the world of quick and the dead. Finally, Shigeki arrives at the destination; he pulls out notebooks he wrote for 33 years, perhaps filled by the memories of Mako; and he digs a hole by hand; then he peacefully sleeps in it. Besides him, Machiko feels healed from all of her past troubles. The motif in the movie is heavy: care-giving, death of child, death of wife, and burial. As my mother is in Alzheimer disease, I had strong empathy on Shigeki. I think many of the audiences have these kinds of experiences. The message from the movie is, as I received, to have real feeling of life and healing, beyond getting old and death. This attempt is, however, not very successful, because, as I wrote in the beginning, the audiences may feel tricked at the end.