In the trailer, a husband wearing a suit climbed into his house and entered from the bedroom door upstairs. His wife was cleaning in the room and caught him in the act and asks...
“Why didn’t you use the front door?” (Can I ask the same question to youknowwho?)
And in the opening of the film, the front door was left opened during the rain leaving the floor wet. I will talk more about this one later.
CHARACTER ARCHETYPES AND SOCIAL BACKDROP
A tale about a family of 4 living in Tokyo where each one of them going through stages in life. The father and a husband lost his job to a cheaper migrant Chinese workforce who can speak Japanese.
A young boy son trying to do get himself into arts by learning the piano, which then got dissaproved by the father, probably due to the little money it will make.
A eldest son who just finished school and register to serve in the army, who had the calling in the middle east by US, a close ally to Japan.
And the mother. She is a full time housewife. She appears to be a normal housewife until one particular scene that happens in act three which puts this film in a special place, especially after multiple viewing. It is that kind of movie that makes you question certain things after finishing.
It is about family on the first viewing. It is then turns into being about social and nation on the second viewing. On a third viewing it is about the result of the atomic bomb attack by the Allies during WWII.
But one thing remains unanswered. The robber character making the entrace in the third act.
ENTER THE DEUS EX MACHINA (the robber), THE ANIMUS AND THE SHADOW
A robber breaks into their house, takes the housewife hostage, brings her to the beach and raped her. But it is not exactly what it is seems.
She actually needs to get out from the house. Let go of her hair and lose the apron from the tireless chores. Yearns for intimate attention and sexual intercourse, which the husband incapable of fullfilling.
She imagines herself as a victim. She is at the border between life and death, shown when she lays herself at the edge of the beach.
And wishing to start all over again.
The robber is in her mind. She needs to blame someone so she created a villian. He is her ‘animus’. Her ‘shadow’. She manages to kill the character by making him drive into the sea (with the car she saw in the showroom) and back to God.
(Also the retro driving scene complete with back plate, perhaps further reinforcing that the whole thing is a ‘show’ in her mind? - despite we can see fr the car body reflection that the car is actually moving, the addition of the back plate seems to be intentional?)
She was then at her lowest point not knowing what to do. Until the morning ray of the sun shines on her. Brings her back to life. A ‘resurrection’.
The husband was at his lowest point too. Got hit by a van and also wishing for everything to start all over again. The next morning, with his body covered by dry leaves, a gust of wind blew his way and he awakens again. Also a ‘resurrection’.
Very poetic.
Both husband and wife got up again from their lowest point. Not by any miracle, but from within. They brought themselves up again.
BACK TO ARCHETYPES AND ‘THE FRONT DOOR’
A boy needs to get himself out into a journey and accomplish something to be a man and a leader. Meanwhile a girl is a lady after menstruation. Later becoming a mother after giving birth. All by natural process.
But being a wife is a bit different. Hence why she created the robber character to get herself off the bad psychological being.
And about the front door. It was left open in the opening shot. She closed it and opens it again and stares to the rainy weather outside. It is the state of her emotion. Remember she asked the husband “Why not used the front door?”.
Who left the door opened at the first place? That is also how the robber got in on the third act. I think it is how the film is showing that she needs someone to get in her and help out, which in the end is her own ‘shadow’ and ‘animus’.
And what an ending that piano performance is. Heavenly light shining from the top of the hall. A sign that everything is fine. The son is the result of Japanese ‘front door’ forced opened by the atom bomb and the cultural penetration through it (and becoming allies, ironically) Crowds are dressing fully suited ala the Matrix feeding the system, sacrificing life.
The son (the eldest one seems to have lost it by settling down in the US. And also from the mothers premonition) is also a representation of the future of Japan.
The family in the end, though, achieves somewhat a of balance. Living the life instead of resisting. Going with the flow. Living their bliss.