This characteristically worldly, affectionate and wryly amusing family drama was this year’s Cannes entry from NZIFF’s favourite Japanese director, Kore-eda Hirokazu. It centres on handsome, charming Ryoto (Abe Hiroshi), a formerly successful novelist who pines for his ex-wife, the pretty Kyoko (Maki Yoko) and his 12-year-old son Shingo (TV actor Yoshizawa Taiyo). Working as a private detective to support a serious gambling habit, he seems an unlikely prospect for re-marriage, but when they are stranded together at his mother’s home during a typhoon, he sees a chance to reunite.

"A young divorced dad tries to get back into the good graces of his ex-wife and son in After the Storm, a classic Japanese family drama of gentle persuasion and staggering simplicity from Kore-eda Hirokazu. As sweet as a ripe cherry at first glance, it has a rocky pit, as viewers who bite deeply will find out... This bittersweet peek into the human comedy has a more subtle charm than flashier films like the director’s child-swapping fable Like Father, Like Son [NZIFF13] but the filmmaking is so exquisite and the acting so calibrated it sticks with you." — Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter

After the Storm

Umi yori mo mada fukaku
Japan 2016 
117 mins
DCP
In Japanese with English subtitles

Director/Screenplay/Editor: Kore-eda Hirokazu

Producers: Matsuzaki Kaoru, Yose Akihiko, Taguchi Hijiri

Photography: Yamazaki Yutaka, Oshita Eiji

Production designer: Mitsumatsu Keiko

Costume designer: Kurosawa Kazuko

Music: Hanaregumi

With: Abe Hiroshi (Shinoda Ryota), Maki Yoko (Shiraishi Kyoko), Yoshizawa Taiyo (Shiraishi Shingo), Kiki Kirin (Shinoda Yoshiko)

Festivals: Cannes (Un Certain Regard) 2016

For tickets and details about films at other venues, please visit the New Zealand International Film Festival website.