THE LITTLE HOUSE/CHIISIAI OUOCHI

Japan, 2014, 137 minutes, Colour.
Haru Kiroki, Takako Matsi, Hidetaka Yoshiaka.
Directed by Yoji Yamada.

The Little House sounds a rather twee title for a film about Japan in the 1930s and 40s. Yet, it is a quiet and rather restrained film about people who lived during that era.

The film opens in the present, a funeral for an elderly lady. Her relatives, especially a grand-nephew, go through her things and find her diary which the nephew had urged her to write. There are flashbacks to the events in the diary, often with a return to the sequences where the lady is writing and the nephew is working with her.

From a provincial town, rather plain, not expected to marry without effort, she goes as a maid to a family in Tokyo where she is were very well received, becoming part of the family. On the surface, all is well. However, the wife of the family is attracted to a young man, a worker in her husband’s company. She begins an affair with him, noticed by some of the neighbours, but not by her husband. The family have plans to find a wife him as well as for the maid. The maid herself is attracted to the young man who is unable to go for war service because of his eyes. As the war grows more severe, not seen on screen until the final firebombings of Tokyo, he is drafted for service.

When the Japanese suffer privations during the war, it seems inappropriate for a family to have a maid, and she returns to her family.

The nephew and his girlfriend discover that the young man had written a book and that there is a museum in his honour, 20 years after his death. They investigate and discover the old man who is the young boy of the family and who knew the maid well. They give him an unopened letter that his mother wrote at the instigation of the maid to the young man - but it was never delivered.

There is a beauty and gentleness in the presentation of these themes, and some self-criticism of the Japanese and their warlike attitudes and presumptions for World War II.

Haru Kiroki won the best actress award in Berlin, 2014.

1. Traditional Japanese films? Contemporary Japanese films? The intercutting of both styles? The memories of the 1930s and the 1940s?


2. The title, the Tokyo house, the exteriors, interiors? Tokyo in the 1930s? The contrast with the 21st century, the town, the seaside town? The musical score and its romantic tone?

3. The opening with the funeral, the family at the station, talking, the introduction to the aunt? Cleaning up her house, discovering the manuscript and
reading it?

4. The scenes of the aunt writing the manuscript, Takeshi encouraging her, reading it, his visits, the meals, fixing things for her, her effort to him, comments on his life, cooking, her tears and remembering? Into cutting these scenes with the flashbacks?

5. Her story, 1935, a plain girl, no prospect of marriage, going to Tokyo to be maid? The welcoming family? Tasks? Place within the family? Everybody referring to her as dear Taki, her close friendship with Totiko, with her husband, the son? The family and the Company and loyalties? Mr Itakuro and his work, the company, his visits, the family wanting him to marry, providing him an album of photos? Is choosing not to marry? Totiko and her kiss, visits to his apartment? The cup of tea, not having it? The downstairs people noticing, gossiping? His not being able to go to war, is site and health? The desperation of the later draft? His visit? Totiko and the gossip? Wanting to visit him? Tuckey inviting her to write the letter, are not taking it? Totiko waiting?

6. Mr Itakuro, his appearance, his visits, chats, playing with the boy and the plane, the attraction to Totiko? To Tuckey?

7. The husband, preoccupied with the company, not noticing what was going on with his wife?

8. Tuckey, work, polite, the issue of the arranged marriage, the visit of the prospective suitor and his sister, elderly, rejected?

9. The background of the Japanese occupation of China, the references to it as an incident? The hostility towards the US? The impact of Pearl Harbor? Japanese suffering, rationing, hard life, maid seeming to be an objectionable choice, the bombing of Tokyo, the destruction of the house with the firebombs, the atomic bombs?

10. Tuckey, her going home, alone, living her long life, a regrets?

11. Takeshi and his discovering that Mr Itakuro had written a book, his paintings, his museum? The visit Western Mark the discovery of Totiko’s son, going
to visit him, giving him the unopened letter, his realisation of what had happened?

12. A Japanese experience?