SOMEBODY’S FLOWERS

A Sublime Dissection of Grief and Guilt and… Hope

Venue(s): Cinema Jack & Betty
April 2 (Sat) - April 8 (Fri), 2022: 19:10
Language: In Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: g-film.net/somebody/
Theater website: www.jackandbetty.net/cinema/detail/2679/
Theater website: www.jackandbetty.net/access.html
Tariff: General: ￥1,800, University/high school students: ￥1,500, Senior: ￥1,100, Member: ￥1,500 or ¥1,200
Advance tickets: https://jackandbetty.cineticket.jp/theater/yokohama/schedule#20220402

Title: 誰かの花 (Dareka no Hana)
Director: Yusuke Okuda (奥田祐介)
Duration: 115 min

One of our favorite recent films will be screening with English subtitles from April 2 – 8 at the historic Jack & Betty Cinemas in Yokohama, so consider this a compelling reason to take that short train ride south. Yusuke Okuda’s beautifully restrained, meticulously crafted Somebody’s Flowers stars Shinsuke Kato as a man who finds himself in the middle of a suburban tragedy when a freak accident kills his parents’ neighbor during a windstorm — and questions are later raised about whether it might actually have been a crime.

Kato (Ken and Kazu, Samurai Marathon, We Couldn’t Become Adults) plays Takaaki, a lonely iron shop welder who just happens to be visiting his loquacious mom Machi (veteran Kazuko Yoshiyuki) and dementia-stricken dad Tadayoshi (Choei Takahashi) when a man is struck and killed by a flowerpot that drops from a nearby balcony in gale-force winds.

The man’s widow and young son soon join the same grief-counseling group that Takaaki has been attending, following the death of his older brother in a traffic accident. Gradually, as the various characters grapple with grief in their own ways, essential connections are forged and hidden emotions shared. A relationship between the normally taciturn Takaaki and the young son helps each to process their loss and to face the future with greater optimism.

But one day, his parents’ young helper starts making disturbing insinuations about the accident/crime, forcing Takaaki to look hard at the facts, and the accepted truth begins to unravel.

Speaking to Nikkei Asia before the film’s premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival last year, Okuda explained that the film’s premise came from personal experience. “A few years ago, I lost a relative in a car accident,” he said. “I felt so much anger toward whoever was responsible for it, but it wasn't clear who the perpetrator was. It made me realize that anyone, on any given day, is capable of becoming a killer. I was too afraid to drive after that.

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