The Toronto International Film Festival premiered “The Long Excuse” from Japanese director Miwa Nishikawa. Her film was based on the novel of the same name that she also wrote years earlier. With the story’s idea first coming to Nishikawa in 2011, the whole project took five years to complete (three years were spent on writing the novel). During a time where Japan was devastated with an earthquake and a tsunami within the same year, Nishikawa didn’t plan on creating a story that was connected to the 2011 devastation. However the very concept of everything disappearing in a moment was what intrigued Nishikawa. How would people handle the grief that followed a tragedy? How would people transform due to that loss?
Much like the book, the film focused on Sachio Kinugasa (Masahiro Motoki), a writer with the penname of Kei Tsumura. He’s introduced while his wife, Natsuko (Eri Kukatsu), cuts his hair as he grumpily watches his earlier appearance on television. Shortly afterwards Natsuko leaves for her girls’ weekend trip with Yuki (Keiko Horiuchi) while completely unaware that Sachio has other plans with another woman. Sachio’s life is turned upside when he learns that Natsuko has been killed in a bus accident while on her trip. While forced to play the grieving husband at Natsuko’s funeral, Sachio meets an emotionally distraught Yoichi Omiya (Pistol Takehara), Yuki’s husband. Despite his reservations, Sachio meets up with Yoichi and his two children, Shinpei (Kenshin Fujita) and Akari (Tamaki Shiratori), only to find himself offering his time to help Yoichi take care of his young children. Through this unexpected arrangement, Sachio finds himself caring for someone other than himself, something he hasn’t truly experienced in some time.
From the beginning of the film, Sachio comes off as a man who was only interested in himself and his fleeting careers. With the death of his wife, he doesn’t react like a grieving husband would yet he’s forced to play that façade for the world to see. That all seemed to change once he met the young Shinpei, who took on more responsibilities than a child should after the death of his mother. Not wanting to see Shinpei sacrifice his education, Sachio offered to be the babysitter of Shinpei and his little sister while their father (Yoichi) continued with his exhausting job on the road. Through his budding friendship with Yoichi and his children, Sachio’s portrayal of the world begins to shift as his priorities focus on someone other than himself. The outcome is something he never could have anticipated. The journey that Masahiro Motoki takes in portraying Sachio was emotionally enlightening. His performance in all parts of Sachio’s grieving process sparks an immediate reaction.
Then there is Yoichi, a man who is truly grieving the loss of his beloved Yuki. Before the accident, Yoichi usually spent his hours on the road as he made his deliveries. Now without his wife, Yoichi finds himself lost as he has to try to figure out how to care for his children while also continuing with his delivery job. When Sachio offers his time to help Yoichi, he felt relieved as the unexpected responsibilities that defaulted to him after the accident were suddenly taken off his hands. Unfortunately Yoichi’s struggles escalate even further when he’s unable to connect with his son, Shinpei, who deals with things very differently from him. Pistol Takehara did an outstanding performance in portraying a grieving single parent and when it came to Yoichi’s struggles with others and from within himself, the performance was just earth-shattering.
Now young Shinpei is a trooper in his own right. Immediately Shinpei takes on the responsibility of caring for his little sister after his mother’s death. Despite his desire to learn and succeed, Shinpei is ready to sacrifice his own education for the well-being of Akari since Yoichi is out trying to make a living for them. However, Shinpei doesn’t find himself so alone anymore when Sachio starts to help out. Not only could Shinpei get back to being a kid again, but he could properly deal with the fact that he lost his mother too soon. Kenshin Fujita did a magnificent job portraying the different facets (both mature and child-like) of Shinpei. His performance unleashed another side to the grieving process.
The film also featured Sosuke Ikematsu, Haru Kuroki, Maho Yamada, Izumi Matsuoka, Hideto Iwai, Suon Kan, Shigeyuki Totsugi, Tasushi Fuchikami, Jiji Boo and Katsuya Kobayashi.
Original Title: Nagai iiwake
Director: Miwa Nishikawa
Writer/Screenplay: Miwa Nishikawa
Country of Origin: Japan
Language: Japanese
Length: 124 minutes
Original Release: October 14, 2016
Publication Note:
This was published in Volume 12, Issue 4 of AsianWave Magazine.
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