A Last Note
(GOGO NO YIGONJO) ((JAPANESE))
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Winner of the film critics award at this year's Moscow Film Fest, "A Last Note" is Japanese filmmaker Kaneto Shindo's tribute to the elderly, a rapidly growing stratum -- and problem -- in Japanese society. Non-melodramatic and non-sentimental treatment of this serious drama, which revolves around senior citizens, will limit commercial potential in the West, though this dignified pic is a likely bet to travel the fest route.
At 83, Shindo, one of the most veteran directors working in the cinema today, continues to make personal films that disregard popular trends. The fact that his wife and frequent star Nobuko Otowa was suffering from terminal cancer during production and died just days after shooting was over lends the film amore touching and personal dimension.
Yoko Morimoto (Horuko Sugimura), an aging stage actress, returns to her villa in a mountain resort district, planning to spend the summer there. Upon arrival , she is informed by Toyoko (Nobuko Otowa), her old housekeeper, that an octogenarian who used to tend the villa's gardens has killed himself.
Just as Yoko is ready to settle into a quiet evening, there are two unexpected visitors: the now-senile Tomie (Kyoko Asagiri), a former actress who Yoko knew well in her youth, and her loyal husband Tohachiro (Hideo Kanze), an ex-Noh actor. Too poor to go to a home, the elderly couple calmly decide to take their own lives -- after bidding farewell to their friends and visiting their village.
Some tension prevails when Yoko is told by her housekeeper that she had an affair with Yoko's husband, who's the father of her teenage daughter. For a while the confrontation threatens to assume the kind of emotional conflict that prevailed in Ingmar Bergaman's "Autumn Sonata," in which Ingrid Bergman's career pianist was accused by her daughter of negligence; here, Yoko is charged with selfish devotion to her stage career, neglecting the emotional needs of her husband. But the two women, each strong and committed to her lifestyle, not only reconcile, but go on to establish a deeper bond between them.
Defying the sentimentality that characterizes American movies about the elderly, like "Harry and Tonto" or "On Golden Pond," Shindo's characters face old age -- and death -- with remarkable resilence and dignity. In fact, at the end, the 80-year-old Yoko unapologetically goes back to the stage. Shindo's ideology -- and mise-en-scene -- is subtle: While advocating greater responsibility by the government for the senile and poor, he also firmly believes that elderly people should work and be active so long as their faculties are in order.
The virtues of "A Last Note" -- extensive dialogue and a simple visual style totally subservient to the text -- are easy to overlook, for his kind of quiet, civilized cinema that explores the meaning of life at an advanced age is almost nonexistent today.
Camera (color), Yoshiyuki Miyake; music, Hikaru Hayashi; art direction, Shigemori Shigeta; sound, Susumu Take, Reviewed at Moscow Film Festival (competing), Moscow, July 25, 1995. Running time: 112 MIN.
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