KABEI – OUR MOTHER

Japan, 2008, 133 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Yoji Yamada.

A very genteel film about a very different period in Japanese history. Director Yoji Yamada brings a delicacy of touch to the characters, not just the patient and loving mother but to her two daughters, her sister-in-law, to a sketch of her professor husband and the gentle kindly scholar who supports the family in trying times.

These trying times are the years 1939-1941 during which there was the Japanese ‘crusade’ in Manchuria, ‘the China incident’, meaning the invasion of Manchuria and the signalling of Japan’s ambitions for world domination. Then comes Pearl Harbor and war is declared with immediate joy for victories like the fall of Singapore. However, it becomes a period of hardship, especially at the end of the war amid the ruins and the hunger and the American presence.

Most of the action takes place in a simple Tokyo house, in the streets, a restaurant and the police precincts and gaol, although there is a cheerfully sunny beach holiday in 1941. The director keeps some grim moments of war action until the last minutes of the film.

The gentility of the film is reinforced by dignified performances by the adults and the constant courtesy, bows, tea drinking, which characterise the politeness inherent in the Japanese tradition.

What makes the film more interesting is the professor who is arrested, separated from his family and kept in squalid prison conditions because he is a dissident, calling the China incident a war and being guilty of what are designated as ‘thought crimes’. The repercussions of these crimes are devastating for the family, his wife having to teach in a primary school and being cut off by her pompous police chief father because of gossip about her husband’s fate.

The two daughters are 12 and 9 at the start, the younger speaking the voiceover memoir. The friendly scholar, accident prone and almost drowning during their holiday, shows a devotion beyond duty into love.

The film is very emotional in its ending – continuing the tribute to the mother during the final credits in a letter form her husband. The style is in the classical Japanese tradition.

1.A Japanese memoir? A different perspective on the 1930s and World War Two? On family?

2.The action generally confined to the house, to the school, the streets, the excursion to the restaurant? The police precincts and prison? The musical score?

3.The focus on the mother, a memoir, a portrait, a tribute? The voice-over of the younger daughter and her adult perspective and memory?

4.The re-creation of the period, the late 1930s, the period of World War Two? The house, costumes, Japanese styles, the beach holidays of 1941, the prison, the war, the aftermath, the city in ruins?

5.The title, affectionate, the nickname for the mother, for the father? The introduction to the family? To each character, the mother washing and hanging clothes on the line, the professor coming home, the children, the meal? His academic background? Love for his wife and children? The ages of the children?

6.The noise in the night, the suddenness of the arrest, the treatment of the professor, the ransacking of the house? The issue of thought crimes? No handcuffs but being tied by rope? Hustled into the cell, with the other prisoners, its squalor, the prisoner inviting the professor to sit next to him, the communist? The visit of his wife, his smell, the change of clothes and his modestly doing this, the prisoners being hungry and the wife bringing food? The hold-up with the visits, the authorities’ attitudes? The later visits? Yamasaki his weeping, the time passing and his not being able to give his message? The prosecution, the prosecutor being a former student, his harsh attitudes, ideology? The professor and his stances, not wanting Manchuria to be called an incident, a war? His death, the final letter and his words to his family?

7.The nature of dissidents, the China incident, the Crusade? The nature of 1930s Japanese patriotism? The worship of the emperor, the singing of the songs? The anthems? The war plans, allying with Germany, antagonism towards the US and Britain, conquering Germany and conquering the world? Pearl Harbour, the outbreak of war, the children going from school to pray for victory at the shrine? The extra saki given to the population for the fall of Singapore? The passing of the war, the bombings, the ignominy of defeat?

8.The mother in herself, a strong and loving woman, loyal to her husband, her father’s visit, the disapproval of the marriage, his status as a policeman, wanting to influence, giving his daughter some money? Later with the meal, the new wife, the restaurant, his disowning his daughter? The grossness of his slurping the eggs from the table? Aunt Hisako, art student, her presence, support, not such a good cook, but keeping the household going? The two girls, their different approaches to life, the little girl and her inexperience? At home, their squabbles? The disowning scene – and the little girl wanting to have eaten beef? Her breaking the egg? The joy of the holiday, the beach? Yamasaki and his presence, his support, mother having to get a job, going to teach? Her illness, the fever, the family looking after her, better? Coping? A good woman? Yamasaki’s love for her, her not recognising it, Hisako’s explanation? The pathos of his going to war and her not seeing him again?

9.The younger daughter, age, nine, weeping, not wanting to apologise about her father in the police precinct, hungry, the visits to her father? The older girl, more settled? The later jobs, the younger as an art teacher and her urging the students? The older daughter as a doctor?

10.Yamasaki, his arrival, hitting his head, talking, the holes in his socks, awkwardness on the bike, deaf in one ear and unable to be a soldier? His work with the publishing firm? His visiting, supporting the family, admiring the professor, and his love for the mother? The preparation for the visit to the professor, his weeping and wasting the opportunity? Devotion? His not being able to swim, the awkwardness at the beach? His finally being called up, the stoic farewell, the message sent to the family, his drowning?

11.The soldier coming to the family after the war, his explanation of Yamasaki’s death? The film waiting until this moment for a visualising of any war action, the soldiers, the boat, the torpedo, the water, the sinking of the boat, Yamasaki and his drowning?

12.The younger daughter and her perspective, the art teacher? The older daughter as the doctor, their mother’s illness, the whole family gathering at the hospital, her final words of wanting her husband in this world rather than the next? Grief?

13.The tribute to the mother in the sequences shown during the final credits?