'THREE SISTERS': JAPANESE FILM FESTIVAL 2014

'Three Sisters' was screening at ACMI as part of the 2014 Japanese Film festival.  It was a reasonably full house and after a short introduction it was into the film. The big screen was luxurious and lush compared to the flat screens that people's houses were filled with these days. The film walks a fine line between drama and comedy and somehow the women who ran the confectionary business Toraya in Kagoshima managed to keep their failed relationships with men in perspective. Except for the youngest sister Sakae, who was struggling to let go of the married men with whom she was having an affair. Namie, who has walked out on her husband in Tokyo, returns to the family home in Kagoshima but hardly has time to settle down before her husband arrives to ask her for a second chance. There is little encouragement for him at first but as time goes by the family warm to him and Namie slowly reconsiders her position. Or does she? She has prospects with a young publisher who has shown an interest in he as she tries to get her career going as an illustrator.

 

After the screening both producer Nishida Seishiro and director Sasabe Kiyoshi took some questions from the M.C. and the audience. They were asked questions such as whether the film reflected contemporary Japanese society? They were also asked if there were any problems with their portrayal of divorce in Japan?

"No" one of them replied through the interpreter. "In fact, the further south you go in Japan, the higher the divorce rate gets."

The audience laughed.

Then there was the scene at the airport when Namie wife meets her husband in the nick of time before he catches his plane. Whilst there is no indication that she will stay with him there is a lingering moment where the camera is focussed on her eyes. This is a scene filled with a pregnant but unspecified meaning teasing the audience to guess as to whether she will pursue a relationship with the young publisher or whether she will she return to Tokyo to be with her husband? Whilst the film left this open, current trends in Japanese society would suggest this is the last good-bye.

 

Producer Nishida suggested the film explores what is meant by family, and what is meant by marriage? The film also pays homage to his hometown in Kagoshima. The film is set at a time when small family businesses were closing down and being replaced by large shopping malls. Asked how it hard it is to get funding for film projects, he explained that he was able to get funding from local government, businesses and individuals after he explained that he wanted to film the local matsuri (festival) and introduce it to the world.