I allowed myself to be carried along the emotional track of the movie and enjoyed it. I like the scene where he told his dead son's ex-girlfriend what was and was not important. You could see his brain click when he realized its relevance to himself. I liked the use of editing on two scenes of a place on a mountain road: the second scene explaining the first. Some of the scenery shots were breathtaking. There were times I let myself get all choked up. This is some talented movie making.
Yet, the dialog was too preachy, especially during the first 3rd of the movie. I cringed at being lectured at. Writers are often told to "show, don't tell." There was way too much "telling" in this movie and it was irritating.
A key element in the movie was the "secret" marriage. There was no legal marriage. Marriages take place in ward or city offices, as I understand it. Cold but official. Shinto ceremonies do occur but they include both families, and are ceremonial for show or sanctification; not to mention expensive.
Whatever occurred between those two people and the Shinto priest was not a wedding. Perhaps the Shinto priest was trying to purify the defilement wrought upon his shrine by the mixed-race couple that "dirtied" his shrine precincts. It was not a marriage ceremony as any Japanese person would understand it.
Besides, non-Japanese men who marry Japanese women, legally, should be added to the family's temple registry. There was no indication of this in the movie. If the girlfriend's father was cognizant of his daughter's marriage to a black guy, which he would have to be if there really were a legal marriage, don't you think some connection would occur to him when the old black guy showed up at his door? But the Japanese father was oblivious, making the scene ridiculous.
Apart from those things misrepresented or that have simply been gotten wrong, what do we actually learn about Japanese culture and people from this movie? Japanese people take their shoes off when entering residences and places that have tatami mats. Beware of sadistic Japanese hosts bearing stinky (and putrefactive by design) bowls of natto. Japanese soldiers died in WWII. Some Japanese young people have an appreciation for American pop music. Not exactly deep insight, nor evidence of more than superficial experience, any of it.
Another quibble I have is with the house party scenes toward the end. He bought that huge house? What visa status did he have? He was too old to be working. Considering that his father died in WWII he would be way over the official Japanese retirement age of 60. Thus no job possible. Therefore no residence status and no way he could buy a house himself. One thinks of the Steven L. Herman case: a long-time resident of Japan who was a senior executive at a multinational media organization. To quote Steven: "I wasn't turned down for a mortgage. They refused to accept the application." The Japanese courts upheld the Japanese bank that did so. The enormous quantities of money necessary for Mickey's old man to purchase that house would not be the most difficult obstacle to surmount. Not by a long shot.
OK, so it's next to impossible to believe he could have bought that house himself. Maybe he gave tons of money to his dead son's ex-girlfriend to buy the house so he could be near his bastard granddaughter. I don't know about that...
Anyway, it was a great fantasy. A Japanese woman with a mixed-race kid has the kid's "grandfather" come to Japan and buy a huge house for her and her daughter, and then he forever after takes care of them with bottomless pockets, becoming in the process a kind of local hero or celebrity. Hmm. Whose fantasy could that be?
Yes, I had trouble engaging my "willing suspension of disbelief" but even with the cringing and guffaws the movie is kind of a nice ride. As a director, Aaron Woolfolk shows much promise. I wish him all the best.
Yet, the dialog was too preachy, especially during the first 3rd of the movie. I cringed at being lectured at. Writers are often told to "show, don't tell." There was way too much "telling" in this movie and it was irritating.
A key element in the movie was the "secret" marriage. There was no legal marriage. Marriages take place in ward or city offices, as I understand it. Cold but official. Shinto ceremonies do occur but they include both families, and are ceremonial for show or sanctification; not to mention expensive.
Whatever occurred between those two people and the Shinto priest was not a wedding. Perhaps the Shinto priest was trying to purify the defilement wrought upon his shrine by the mixed-race couple that "dirtied" his shrine precincts. It was not a marriage ceremony as any Japanese person would understand it.
Besides, non-Japanese men who marry Japanese women, legally, should be added to the family's temple registry. There was no indication of this in the movie. If the girlfriend's father was cognizant of his daughter's marriage to a black guy, which he would have to be if there really were a legal marriage, don't you think some connection would occur to him when the old black guy showed up at his door? But the Japanese father was oblivious, making the scene ridiculous.
Apart from those things misrepresented or that have simply been gotten wrong, what do we actually learn about Japanese culture and people from this movie? Japanese people take their shoes off when entering residences and places that have tatami mats. Beware of sadistic Japanese hosts bearing stinky (and putrefactive by design) bowls of natto. Japanese soldiers died in WWII. Some Japanese young people have an appreciation for American pop music. Not exactly deep insight, nor evidence of more than superficial experience, any of it.
Another quibble I have is with the house party scenes toward the end. He bought that huge house? What visa status did he have? He was too old to be working. Considering that his father died in WWII he would be way over the official Japanese retirement age of 60. Thus no job possible. Therefore no residence status and no way he could buy a house himself. One thinks of the Steven L. Herman case: a long-time resident of Japan who was a senior executive at a multinational media organization. To quote Steven: "I wasn't turned down for a mortgage. They refused to accept the application." The Japanese courts upheld the Japanese bank that did so. The enormous quantities of money necessary for Mickey's old man to purchase that house would not be the most difficult obstacle to surmount. Not by a long shot.
OK, so it's next to impossible to believe he could have bought that house himself. Maybe he gave tons of money to his dead son's ex-girlfriend to buy the house so he could be near his bastard granddaughter. I don't know about that...
Anyway, it was a great fantasy. A Japanese woman with a mixed-race kid has the kid's "grandfather" come to Japan and buy a huge house for her and her daughter, and then he forever after takes care of them with bottomless pockets, becoming in the process a kind of local hero or celebrity. Hmm. Whose fantasy could that be?
Yes, I had trouble engaging my "willing suspension of disbelief" but even with the cringing and guffaws the movie is kind of a nice ride. As a director, Aaron Woolfolk shows much promise. I wish him all the best.