Writer-director Tadashi Nohara and actor Rira Kawamura reteam for 'Third Time Lucky,' another intimate examination of midlife Kobe malaise, premiering at Tokyo.
embarks on its tale of discontent and middle-aged ennui as an ensemble but slowly reveals itself to be largely about Haru , a divorced geriatric nurse. She’s in an obviously stale relationship with a psychiatrist, Soichiro , staying mostly because of her maternal attachment to his daughter Ran, who’s headed to school in Canada and has one foot out the door.
Soichiro develops romantic feelings for Mikako, leading to the dissolution of his relationship with Haru. She promptly takes up with her ex-husband, Kenji , despite the fact that he’s on the verge of remarrying. In the midst of all this domestic upheaval comes Naruto , an amnesiac young man Haru finds on the beach and takes under her wing as a surrogate son, at least until his actual father comes calling.
The cast is uniformly adept at making their characters recognizable, if not necessarily likable, and we understand their decisions, wise or not. Rira Kawamura is, unsurprisingly, the most comfortable with Nohara’s cadences, having co-starred in, and Haru also has the most to reconcile within herself. The stealth star, however, is Demura, delivering a spot-on portrayal of a woman consumed by unfocused frustrations that sap her ability to communicate what she wants or needs.
Yoshio Kitagawa and Yukiko Iioka’s quiet, intimate cinematography keeps the images still long enough for the little moments and subtle details to emerge on their own, like the low-key body language of Haru and Takashi’s mother that signals her discomfort with Notaru’s presence, or Soichiro’s dinner-table rigidity ahead of ending his relationship with Haru.
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