Sunday 4 November 2018

Embracing vs Katatsumori

I know, I admit it: I've never actually seen a Naomi Kawase film before. Not that I don't want to see "Moe no Suzaku", I just haven't had the opportunity yet. So, if I'm going to start, why not, for once, start at the beginning?!

Seemingly not much more than student 8mm films - made while teaching at college - these two early documentary shorts are very personal works, specifically looking at her relationships with two family members: one close and one distant.

Embracing (1992)


Raised by her grandparents in Nara, Kawase is essentially an orphan though both her parents are alive. Her mother seemingly lives with her new family, while little is known of what became of her father. Starting with a conversation with her great aunt about how her parents met, her adopted mother asks her why she would want to find those who left her. Nonetheless, Kawase tries to track her father, visiting the places he formally lived in Osaka and Kobe and the Hyogo region. Eventually, she is able to locate his current residence and gains his phone number. But, does she want to make that call?


Katatsumori (1994)


Her second documentary short is a portrait of her great aunt who raised her. Kawase plays the annoying child, endlessly poking her camera in her great aunt's face as she goes about daily chores, mainly tending to the "garden" at the front of their house. But she also takes some more covert shots of her from a distance through windows. There is little in the way of story here, more a love letter to the woman who raised her, as they watch the garden grow together.


"Embracing" is very much an art film: out-of-focus abstract shots, with a constantly moving camera - at times irritating, at times very effective. The storytelling is at times unclear, but as we build towards the climax, things fit into place and is quite moving. "Katatsumori", however, is more conventional in its style: more straightforward camerawork as she films her great aunt going about her business.

You can see a change in Kawase between the two films. In "Embracing" her hair is short, her face is blank, her images abstract, with a more experimental and disgruntled youth, angry for answers. Though "Katatsumori" sees Kawase regularly smiling, with longer hair, appearing more the decent, girl next door than the more lost soul of "Embracing". This more abstract storytelling and poignant conclusion make "Embracing" the stronger of the two, though these are best watched as a pair, giving a rounded portrait of what would become one of Japan's most respected directors in later years.

Perhaps "Embracing" helped answer some questions and saw a coming-of-age for Kawase, more comfortable in herself two years later. She was once searching for her parents, but with "Katatsumori", she has realised her great aunt's words at the start of "Embracing": she is the women who raised her, and so always knew where her home was.


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