How Old Is the River?

((FUYU NO KAPPA))

By KEN EISNER

(JAPANESE) A Fuyu No Kappa Unit production. (International sales: Uplink Co., Tokyo.) Produced by Takashi Nishimura. Directed by Shiori Kazama. Screenplay, Kazama, Tomoko Ogawa.

Understated in the extreme, "How Old Is the River?" is a probing meditation on the fragility of human relationships, using young family members as reluctant guides. Roughly made indie feature stands no chance commercially, but is philosophically satisfying nonetheless.

Pic centers on three stepbrothers gathered at their absent father's summer home in a rural Tokyo suburb. Ichitaro (Bang-ho Cho), the eldest, is a former piano prodigy now teaching music to children; Takeshi (Rijin Wakuta) is a college dropout getting by on charm; and Tsuguo (Seiichi Tanabe), related to the others only through his mom's marriage to their much-divorced dad, is an art student with a secret crush on the moody Ichitaro.

Into this uneasy setup drifts their bratty female cousin, Sakeko (Akiko Ito), still nursing a childhood pash for the middle bro -- something his new g.f. (Makiko Kuno) picks up on right away.

This all sounds quite soapy, but new helmer Shiori Kazama keeps a sober hand on the proceedings, never letting them veer into meller schmaltz or teen-angst cuteness. With no soundtrack except natural sounds, hand-made music and terse conversation, she manages to maintain dramatic tension and suggest deeper meanings, especially via Sakeko's dead-serious recollections of a childhood encounter with water spirits. What's really haunting these jaded characters is their lost innocence, and the helmer also appears to be noting a sea change in the vaunted stability of Japanese family life.

Kazama, who comes from an art-and-music background, has said she views her alienated family members as the celluloid equivalent of a struggling string quartet. Only the relentless darkness of Akihiko Suzuki's 16mm lensing keeps the pic's innate lyricism from taking off, and length will be a problem, even for festival settings (although "River" won a Tiger Award at this year's Rotterdam fest).

Camera (color, 16 mm), Akihiko Suzuki; editor, Kazama; production design, Takeo Kimura; art direction, Koichi Takeuchi; sound, Suzuki. Reviewed at Vancouver Film Festival (competing), Oct. 14, 1995. Running time: 114 MIN.

With: Akiko Ito, Bang-ho Cho, Seiichi Tanabe, Rijin Wakuta, Makiko Kuno.

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