Mogari no mori (2007)

A caregiver at a small retirement home takes one of her patients for drive to the country, but the two wind up stranded in a forest where they embark on an exhausting and enlightening two-day journey.

Director:

Naomi Kawase

Writer:

Naomi Kawase

Stars:

Yôichirô Saitô, Kanako Masuda, Machiko Ono

3 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
Yôichirô Saitô	...	Machiko's husband
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kanako Masuda	...	Mako
Machiko Ono	...	Machiko
Shigeki Uda	...	Shigeki
Makiko Watanabe	...	Wakako
Yûsei Yamamoto

Storyline

A caregiver at a small retirement home takes one of her patients for drive to the country, but the two wind up stranded in a forest where they embark on an exhausting and enlightening two-day journey.

---

Plot Keywords:

retirement home | forest | three word title | death | tree | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [es]

Country:

Japan France

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

23 June 2007 (Japan)

Also Known As:

The Forest of Mogari

Filming Locations:

Nara, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Celluloid Dreams, Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC), Kumie

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Color:

Color

User Reviews

Hauntingly beautiful

I found The Mourning Forest a poetic and hauntingly beautiful meditation on death, old age, sadness and letting go. I haven't actively sought films that fit into the 'contemplative cinema' category at MIFF, but this is one of several I've seen so far.

The film is effectively a two-hander: Shigeki, an elderly and energetic resident of a retirement home, and Machiko, a young and inexperienced caregiver. The film focuses on their interactions and what happens when Machiko takes Shigeki for a drive on his birthday. While other characters assume fleeting roles, there is a recurring theme of death and mourning, a point that is reinforced by both the title and on-screen comments at film's end. While this may sound morbid, it is anything but.

The cinematography is stunning, capturing the beauty of wind-swept fields, overhead shots of finely-trimmed symmetrical arrays of hedges, and mountain forest scenery. There are long takes where nothing of much significance seems to transpire and yet the film remains completely engaging. The human drama is depicted as inexplicably linked to nature, a poetic theme that Japanese cinema sometimes conveys so effectively.

One slight negative: there was a little bit of unnecessary camera shake that distracted slightly. I saw The Mourning Forest when it screened at the Melbourne International Film Festival.