Ohikkoshi (1993)

Renko, a girl in the sixth grade, is at first unperturbed by her parents' decision to separate. With the companionship of her boyfriend, Minoru, and Sally, a classmate in the same boat, ... See full summary »

Director:

Shinji Sômai

Writers:

Satoshi Okonogi, Satoko Okudera,

Stars:

Shinobu Chihara, Kiichi Nakai, Junko Sakurada

8 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Shinobu Chihara
Kiichi Nakai
Junko Sakurada
Tsurube Shôfukutei
Mariko Sudo
Tomoko Tabata	...	Renko
Taro Tanaka

Storyline

Renko, a girl in the sixth grade, is at first unperturbed by her parents' decision to separate. With the companionship of her boyfriend, Minoru, and Sally, a classmate in the same boat, Renko gradually realises the practical implications of divorce, and tries repeatedly to get her parents to reconcile. An old man teaches her about the need to forget the past...

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Plot Keywords:

divorce | teen | based on novel

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

20 March 1993 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Moving

Filming Locations:

Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Yomuri Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

124 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

User Reviews

Insightful and engaging

This film has for a long time been something of a holy grail. An obscure Japanese film hardly ever presented outside of its homeland, made by a director that died a decade ago, and the Japanese DVD (without subtitles) is out of print. But in October of 2012 it suddenly appeared on YouTube, in a complete format with acceptable-resolution video. And with English subtitles! Someone up there has listened to a prayer, it seems.

This insightful look at a family torn to pieces and the attempts by the daughter to fix things back to where they once were is no hack job or clichéd melodrama. In this story both parents and child change distance and direction, and the drama is never hopeless in its presentation. The father may be a slacker, but he has heart. The mother may be blind to her daughter's growing need for self-reliance, but she can learn her lesson if needed.

The kid in the centre of the story is a 12-year-old that ultimately says to her stunned mother that she wants to grow up as soon as possible. This seems to be her own way of coming to terms with her discovery of the possibly irreconcilable differences between her mother and father. She wants to become big, so she doesn't have to rely any more upon two people that cannot cooperate for the common good of the family the three of them are part of.

Someone compared "Ohikkoshi" with "Omohide poro-poro" (Only Yesterday). I could inject a resemblance or two with Takahata's feature film "Jarinko Chie" (1981), where Chie has to deal with things, in between her gambling father and her mother, the duo having separated from one another. Or with Jun'ichi Satō's "Junkers Come Here" (1995), a sweet film about another divorced family and a girl in between. All these films happen to be animated, a clear evidence that animation in Japan is broader in its scope and themes than in most countries.