After the Storm

Continuing his streak of gently elegiac, elegantly crafted and deeply humanist films about Japanese life, Kore-eda (Still Walking, Our Little Sister) presents one of his finest works yet in ‘After the Storm’. Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) is a deadbeat father who was once a prize-winning author, but who now struggles to make enough money from his job as a private detective to pay child support. Or maybe he would if he just stopped gambling it all away. Either way, there’s a storm brewing.

96% – Rotten Tomatoes

7.5/10 – IMDB

“His latest film, though, has a special warmth and grace. It unfolds slowly, sneaks up on big questions about intertwined mysteries of family and personal destiny, and pretty much answers them.”

“Slow-paced, sad, rueful and sometimes warmly funny, After the Storm is one of the director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s sturdiest, and most sensitive, constructions.”