I had this movie earmarked for a long time, until I finally got a chance to see it today. I've seen few Yoji Yamada flicks before, to mention some of the best: "The Hidden Blade" (2004), "The Twilight Samurai" (2002) and "Love and Honour" (2006), so I had at least some idea what to expect. But this... - This movie is nothing sort of a masterpiece! In spite the fact that Yamada is one of Japan's most productive directors of all time, I still wasn't quite prepared. This movie is simply irresistibly at the same time heart breaking and heart warming, without forgetting this is pure eye candy on film. The film has only few sets outside the house, which is just appropriate, as after all, the movie is about the "little red house". However, what truly makes this film is the outstanding performance by Haru Kuroki. Watching her playing the maid is so heart warming that just watching her is enough to make grown men start crying. I mean really, she doesn't even need to deliver any lines! Mark my words, you will hear from this young actress in the future. I knew she had won the Silver Bear for best actress at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival, for her performance in this film, but I had no idea the role she played was this good! While watching her playing this modest, humble and loyal maid is something you will never forget. I can't even remember when I have seen a performance by an actress the last time, that would be even close to the sheer brilliance of this role. I think I will also need to have a look at some of the Yamada's older films, to see if there is anything I have missed.If you believe you could have an understanding and insight for Art House -films, but have never watched any before, this would work really well as an introduction to a larger world. What a simply wonderful movie!

Viewed at CineMatsuri 2015. Veteran Director Yoji Yamada provides a heart-wrenching story that moves back and forth over an 80 year span that he knows well, since he has lived through it! Painfully sad overall, but not maudlin, the film employs a conventional plot scenario: the recent discovery (with frequent surprises) of a diary written over many past decades by a recently deceased family member. In the hands of Master Director Yamada, this common story vehicle makes for a most uncommon photo play. It is a gripping (the viewer can not escape being pulled in--resistance is, indeed, futile!), emotionally jarring tale of an upper middle-class family that lived prior to WWII and died during the war (as "collateral damage"), and the pivotal role played by the family's maid who has survived (by leaving Tokyo in time), and, of course, is the diary's author. Most of the story takes place in a (relatively) little house on a hill in exurban Tokyo. It has a distinctive red-tiled roof, hence, is often referred to as the "little red house" through out the film. Direction is outstanding, and so is most of the acting. Actress Takako Matsu delivers a consummate performance as the bored and frustrated housewife. Cinematography (1.78 aspect ratio, color), lighting, and set design/decoration are excellent. Music lief motif is a bit on the French side, but quite good. Subtitles are often long, but linger sufficiently to be read without distracting from scenes. However (and regrettably), only above-the-line names are translated in the credits. Highly recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Those familiar with Yoji Yamada's work will know what to expect from this, his latest work that won for Kuroki Haru the Best Actress Award in this year's Berlin Film Festival. Rest assured that these expectation will be fully met. There is again a wealth of delicate emotions and overflowing warmth. And then there is more.Film lovers can easily call up in their mind a list of works that have a house as a motif, a theme, or even the main character (yes, but unfortunately I can't remember this one's name). This house here is in bright red, glimmering like an exquisite gem on a ridge overlooking an interesting landscape somewhere in Tokyo. The main body of the story takes place in this house in a period of about 7 to 8 years, from the prelude of WW II to dropping of the atomic bombs. Expectedly this is from Japan's perspective. The perspective however is not from makers and shakers of events, but rather from that of everyday common folks the depiction of which Master Akira Kurosawa excelled in. Yoji Yamada has shown that he is equally deft in this.While the main story took place more than half a century ago, the movie actually starts with the present, and effortlessly glides seamlessly between two time frames which are just a few months apart: before and after the death (from old age)of an independent woman living alone, Taki (Baishou Cheiko). From both of these time frames, the audience is transported back to the main story via VOs, from two people. From after Taki's death, it is her grandnephew Takeshi (Satoshi Tsumabuki) looking over the things she left behind. From before her death, it is the two of them discussing her story in his effort to help her write her autobiography.The main story starts with young Taki (Kuroki Haru) leaving her home in desolate and poverty stricken northern Japan to seek a better life in Tokyo. In the titular house, as a servant girl, she is received with kindness by the young mother Tokiko (Takako Matsu) who treats her like a sister. Her main job is to look after 7-year-old (or thereabout) young master who soon get infected with polio. Through Taki's dedicated service that includes carrying the kid in a long walk to the masseur-healer daily and eventually learning to apply the message herself, he gradually recovers. This cements her relationship with the family.Let me turn to the macro scene for a moment. The head of the family (Tokiko's husband) is a typical businessman, something like a second-in-charge in a toy manufacturing firm. Entertaining colleagues (including the boss) in his house is not unusual. Yoji Yamada utilizes these occasions to paint a broad brush picture of the perspective of everyday businessmen during the period of Japanese aggression in WW II: they look at it as business opportunities, first and foremost. It isn't until towards the end of the movie that, through the words of the little boy who is now an old man on a wheelchair (the polio was healed, but never totally), that Yoji Yamada delivers the message of those who look back and finally see what atrocity they have been deceived by the militant government into condoning.Back to the intimate story, the real intrigue begins with a new colleague in the toy company appearing on the scene, a gentle soul of a young designer called Itakura (Hidetaka Yoshioka). As an affair develops between Itakura and Tokiko, it would seem at a quick glance that Taki makes up the third of a triangle. It is, and it isn't. Taki is not in love with Itakura, but jealous of him. While I confess readily to the guilt of putting this so bluntly, Yoji Yamada's handling of this is all gentle subtlety. We don't even need to affix a label. Call this an affection and warmth one woman feel for another that dances tantalizingly between admiration, romance and desire. Here, there is also loyalty.I cannot even begin to describe the layers and layers of subtle emotions that are bottled up in Taki. Maybe that is why young Kuroki Haru (born 1990) won the Berlin award while many thought it should have gone to Takako Matsu. And here is a Takako Matsu that you have never seen before, depicting such a wide range of emotions including amorous and bitchy (slightly so, I have to qualify). Not to be forgotten, however, is the third woman Baishou Cheiko who plays aged Taki so pitch-perfectly that she deserves to win the award just as much as the other two. Watch this movie. Take your pick.

Taki (Haru Kuroki) comes from northern Japan to Tokyo to join the Hirai household as a housekeeper. Back in the pre-war days the newly rich upper-middle classes built their own houses out in the suburbs, adopting Western style furnishings and fashions. And the Hirais built a very nice little house with a red roof. Taki quickly fits in and bonds quickly – too quickly – with Tokiko, the young wife and mother (Takako Matsu). She loves it so much there that she turns down an opportunity to marry into wealth. Husband (Takataro Kataoka) spends a lot of time at the office and traveling around for his toy company, which leaves plenty of time for Tokiko to pursue her own pleasures, like any decent housewife at that time. But it all changes when Itakura (Hidetaka Yoshioka), a young employee at husband's company, comes to visit. Tokiko is immediately attracted to him – he's handsome, cultured, artistic and a bit sickly – hitting all the right buttons for Tokiko. The feeling turns mutual as circumstances bring them together again and again. To Taki's dismay they begin an affair. This is where the film compares to Remains of the Day. Though the division between master and servant isn't as distinct in Japan, the housekeeper is still an employee, and the employee has to keep her own feelings to herself. Taki struggles with this as Tokiko becomes consumed and careless. Kuroki won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for her performance, which was a surprise to many. But Kuroki beautifully portrayed Taki's struggle as the perfect world began to crumble. It is a too common Japanese theme: put on a brave front and never show your struggles. But in this film it's nicely presented.