Hibi (2005) Reviews

• Eccentric women characters return to Japanese screen

  jaakkochan2006-04-30

  Hibi turned out to be a fantastic and unique movie. Director Banmei Takahashi did very nice job with this movie, it's touching, and rather special Japanese movie. Hibi tells about mother who does pottery and lives rather simple life, growing her children up. She does remarkable job in pottery, finding a new way to make natural pottery in her own tunnel kiln. Then, her son gets leukemia. And entire family has to fight hard to find a donor who has matching bone marrow. The movie is unique and beautiful story about life, but at the same time, very hard and realistic movie about leukemia. Little a bit eccentric character of Kiyoko, acted by Yuko Tanaka is fantastic as such characters haven't yet seen in Japanese screen since eighties. I was really impressed about Yuko Tanaka's way to perform her difficult role so naturally. She doesn't seem to have to act much. Shunsuke Kubozuka impresses me as much as his brother Yosuke, who did convincing job in movie "Go". Maybe the final message of this movie would be that living and dying exist in this world not as opposite, but as a parallel forms of each other. Even the most perfect form will eventually break down, whether it's piece of art of pottery, or a human life.