Maborosi, known in Japan as Maboroshi no Hikari (幻の光, literally "phantasmic light") (1995) is a Japanese film by director Hirokazu Koreeda starring Makiko Esumi, Tadanobu Asano and Takashi Naitō. Based on a novel by Teru Miyamoto. 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed. ... Hirokazu Koreeda (是枝裕和 Koreeda Hirokazu, born in 1962 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese film director. ... Makiko Esumi (江角マキコ Esumi Makiko), née Makiko Hirano (平野真紀子 Hirano Makiko, born 18 December 1966 in Shimane, Japan) is a Japanese model and actress. ... Tadanobu Asano (浅野忠信 Asano Tadanobu), born Tadanobu Sato (佐藤 å¿ ä¿¡ Satō Tadanobu, born November 27, 1973 in Yokohama) is a charismatic and versatile Japanese actor who has been described by critics as that countrys answer to Johnny Depp. ... Daniel Defoes Robinson Crusoe; title page of 1719 newspaper edition A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended fictional narrative in prose. ... Teru Miyamoto (宮本 輝, born March 6, 1947) is a Japanese author. ...

Plot summary

Yumiko (Esumi) and Ikuo (Asano) are a young Osaka couple who had just received their first baby. One day Ikuo throws himself in front of a train, seemingly without motive. A few years pass. Yumiko agrees to an arranged marriage with a widower, Tamio (Naitô), and she and Yuichi (her son, now played by Gohki Kashima) move to Tamio's house in a rustic village on the Sea of Japan coast, shot on location in Wajima, on the Noto Peninsula. Osaka City Hall Mayor Junichi Seki Address 〒530-8201 Osaka-shi,Kita-ku Nakanoshima 1-3-20 Phone number 06-6208-8181 Official website: Osaka City , Osaka ) is the capital of Osaka Prefecture and the third-largest city in Japan, with a population of 2. ... The Sea of Japan (East Sea) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. ... Categories: Cities in Ishikawa Prefecture | Japan geography stubs ... The article incorporates text from OpenHistory. ...

A drunken spat over a bell Yumiko had given Ikuo just before he died causes Yumiko and Tomio to discuss their strong emotions for the late spouses. Shortly after, Yumiko follows a funeral procession and lingers at the crematorium, until Tamio arrives by car to pick her up, at which point she says she just wants to know why Ikuo killed himself. Tamio suggests that, like the will o' the wisps his father used to see at sea, perhaps something just drew him towards the tracks and away from life. The will o the wisp or ignis fatuus (fools fire) is the phenomenon of ghostly lights sometimes seen at night or in twilight hovering over damp ground in still air, often over bogs. ...

Cinematic technique

Drawing comparisons to works of Ozu and Mizoguchi, Maborosi employs static shots (using only two pans, both in Shikoku, one at the rice paddy, one at the crematorium) long shots (using only one close-up and one medium close-up in a shot-reverse-shot at Ikuo's factory in Osaka), long shots (the viewer almost never has a good look at the actors' faces) and low, "natural" (and therefore dark) lighting to create a mood of loneliness and sadness, rather than well-lit close-ups lain over "sad" (and loud) background music, as is common in TV melodrama. Koreeda also consciously, with one deliberate exception, shot Asano and Esumi in two-shots, side-by-side; since they both wear black and the shots are slightly underexposed, it's difficult to tell where one actor's body ends and the other's begins, creating a sense of personal closeness and oneness between the two. Yasujiro Ozu (小津 安二郎 Ozu Yasujirō) (December 12, 1903 - December 12, 1963) was an influential Japanese film director. ... Kenji Mizoguchi (溝口 健二 Mizoguchi Kenji; May 16, 1898 – August 24, 1956) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. ... A Two Shot is a type of shot employed in the film industry in which the frame encompasses a comfortable view of two people. ...

External links

• at IMDb
• at JMDb (in Japanese)