Cast overview: | |||
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Kengo Kôra | ... | Tadashi Ono |
Machiko Ono | ... | Masami Mizuki | |
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Chizuru Ikewaki | ... | Yoko Ômiya |
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Michie Kita | ... | Akiko Sasaki |
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Kazuya Takahashi | ... | Takuya Ômiya |
Yasuko Tomita | ... | Kazumi Sakurai | |
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Mei Kurokawa | ... | Misaki Maruyama |
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Chika Uchida | ... | Kaoru Okano |
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Ryôta Matsushima | ... | Go Tadokoro |
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Amon Kabe | ... | Hiroya Sakurai |
This movie has an ensemble cast which draws normal people who might be living next door, in any normal town. And it draws various problems like child abuse, chain of abuse, negligence, teasing, which might exist in any town, more than a little. The problems could be solved sometimes by "kindness" and "consideration" of people. When it comes to know in a family which is closest and smallest community for us that there is someone who has lost those feelings, what people can do? If it comes to know, just go and talk. Just go and hold their hand. It is possible that people could be saved only by that. Plants die if they don't receive nutrient, people also die without the "kindness" of someone. The "kindness" can definitely save someone, it blossoms flower in that person and someone else could also be saved. There is possibility, since everyone was once a child and someone's neighbor. This movie draws the light arising out of series of such feeling.
This is one of those movies whose cinematic heart is in the right place, but which falls short in the execution. To some extent anyways.
We have maybe a dozen characters here, tracing three separate story lines, cadged from three separate short stories by a Japanese author. They depict people who have various problems; parent-child abuse in two cases, while others are more complex.
The most important character is a young male grade school teacher who is often unable to control his class, but at the same time brings a fresh perspective to his work, especially WRT an assignment he gives his charges at the end.
...unfortunately, several of the performances, and a number of the plot developments, strain credulity. Some parts are quite easy to believe; others are, frankly, borderline absurd.
Which is a pity, because the recurring theme, about how by helping others we help ourselves, is noble and worthwhile and so, so right. But verisimilitude is important too, and in this respect, Being Good does not always ring true.