Quick Review #133: Kuuhaku (movie)

Title: Kuuhaku / 空白　　　　　　　　　　　　

Rating: 7 / 10

Recommended for: 

For those who want to watch a story featuring different perspectives on who's at fault and who's the victim and/or are fans of the cast especially Furuta Arata and Matsuzaka Toori

* Potential spoilers ahead!

Liked:

- This story will invoke changing emotions and interpretations as the movie progresses with regard to the topic of who's at fault and who's the victim in the case of an accidental death of a junior high school girl caught for shoplifting. I liked the fact that there was no standard answer given and showcasing different perspectives was a good way to highlight the dilemma of how difficult it is to view an issue objectively especially when emotions and our values come into the picture.

- The cast boasted quite a number of good actors with Furuta Arata and Matsuzaka Toori hogging the limelight as characters on opposite sides of the spectrum. Furuta's portrayal as a father who kept looking outwards to justify and make sense of why his daughter behaved the way she did and the reason she died instead of reflecting on his own actions was very convincing. On the other hand, Matsuzaka managed to show the complexity of his character who was filled with conflicting emotions as he faced criticism and pressure from what he supposedly did rightly but ended with the wrong consequences. Likewise, the supporting actors like Terajima Shinobu, Shuri, Ito Aoi, Tabata Tomoko, Fujiwara Kisetsu and Kataoka Reiko all pulled their weight to make their characters come to life.

Disliked: 

- While the individual parts of the movie were good, I felt that the story lacked a strong central theme or rather, was weak in trying to convey it. The title which literally means "blankness" can indeed be interpreted in a variety of ways such as how the father-and-daughter who hardly knew and understood each other despite living under the same roof, the emptiness and isolation which the daughter felt both at home and in school or the supermarket owner whose life revolved around the supermarket but he never realised the value of it to himself, the employees and customers until it was too late. While this multi-pronged approach might give viewers the freedom to develop their own conclusions, this also diluted the power of the movie's messaging. I felt like I went through a pretty emotional and painful journey but with no tangible or obvious outcome just like how the supermarket owner got a very belated and ambiguous apology for the father who finally acknowledged that his late daughter did do something wrong which contributed to the accident. Perhaps this hollow feeling is meant to resonate with the title and make everything come full circle but I would have preferred a clearer delivery of any central theme which the director or scriptwriter had in mind.