Hirokazu Kore-eda explores a childhood friendship in an overly intellectual and complex light in his story

Faithful to his family theme, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda treats the subject of childhood in a sophisticated film.

The author ofA family matter and of Like father, like son, Hirokazu Kore-eda, loses a little of his splendor in Innocence, which comes out Wednesday December 27. A film about the close friendship between two children, its overly complex construction deprives it of some of the charm and emotion expected on such a subject.

Minato has disruptive behavior that isolates him from his classmates. His widowed mother, who raises him, is constantly confronted with the authority of the school, while the problem seems to come from a teacher with violent behavior. For his part, Minato finds a true friend in Eri who, however, does not want the other students to know it. Their close friendship will isolate them more and more from those around them to the point of irreversible headlong flight.

Childhood is a major theme in cinema, since Zero driving (1934) by Jean Vigo. The 400 Blows (1959) by François Truffaut also remains a major reference found in Innocence, where the two children are the same age as in the French film. Minato also has behavior that disturbs adults, like the young Antoine Doinel of 400 Moves. But where the emotion emanated from a narrative with linear progression in Truffaut, Kore-eda chooses a fragmented narration where the subject is lost.

Metaphysics of childhood

Innocence multiplies points of view and temporalities to the point of losing reason. First told through the eyes of the mother, it moves to that of the teacher, then the child, the three interfering more or less throughout the film. Scenes are left hanging without knowing the conclusion, such as when the parents search for the children in a torrential rain. If Kore-eda asks for the spectator’s participation to create the link between the sequences, the coherence of the story escapes and the film favors interpretations that are too open.

In a completely different genre, another reference: 2001: A Space Odyssey, by Stanley Kubrick. The film played on such a bias, but the subject lent itself to it more than that of a childhood friendship. Kore-eda, however, seems to be in the continuity of Kubrick when he evokes in Minato’s words the finitude of the universe (the “big crunch“) and reincarnation, two subjects which obsess him. Their metaphysical content matches that of 2001. But if the Japanese director has every reason to tinge childhood with gravity, his overly intellectual approach risks losing some of the spectators.

The sheet

Gender : Drama
Director : Hirokazu Kore-eda
Actors: Sakura Andô, Eita Nagayama, Soya Kurokawa
Country : Japan
Duration : 2:06
Exit : December 27, 2023
Distributer : The pact