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After the Quake

After the Quake

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Summary

Four strangers' lives intersect over three decades as they confront grief and hope after the 1995 Kobe and 2011 Tohoku quakes and the COVID-19 pandemic

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

Jayne Nelson

The devastating 1995 earthquake in Kobe killed over 5000 people and left a deep mark on the Japanese psyche. Its aftermath hangs heavily over the characters in this drama anthology, adapted from various short stories that appeared in a 2000 collection by Haruki Murakami. However, writer/director Tsuyoshi Inoue cleverly expands his scope with decades-spanning references to later quakes and the Covid-19 pandemic. We meet the cast in four almost isolated acts. The first focuses on Komura (Masaki Okada), who grapples with loss after his wife leaves him. Act two introduces us to runaway Junko (Yui Narumi), who forms a bond with a man who lights bonfires on a beach. Next, we follow Yoshiya (Daichi Watanabe), who was raised in a cult and remains convinced that he's the son of God. And we close with the most striking sequence, in which elderly security guard Katagiri (Koichi Sato) tries to save Tokyo from an earthquake with the help of (what else?) a giant frog. The tales don't necessarily sit well so closely together and some of Murakami's nuance is lost in the adaptation. But it's still curiously comforting to bathe in these lethargic, dreamlike worlds.

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5.2/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameKomuraMasaki OkadaMimeiAi HashimotoJunkoYui NarumiYoshiyaDaichi WatanabeKatagiriKoichi SatoMiyakeShinichi Tsutsumi

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Crew

rolenameDirectorTsuyoshi Inoue

Details

Languages

Japanese

Guidance

Swearing, sex scenes.

Formats

Colour

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