Dare mo mamotte kurenai (2008)

Director:

Ryôichi Kimizuka

Writers:

Ryôichi Kimizuka (screenplay) &
Satoshi Suzuki (screenplay)

Release Date:

24 January 2009 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Kôichi Satô	...	Takumi Katsura
Mirai Shida	...	Saori Funamura
Ryuhei Matsuda	...	Shogo Mishima
Yuriko Ishida	...	Kumiko Honjo
Kuranosuke Sasaki	...	Takaharu Umemoto
Shirô Sano	...	Ichiro Sakamoto
Kanji Tsuda	...	Koichi Inagaki
Takahiro Azuma	...	Atsushi Sayama
Yoshino Kimura	...	Reiko Onoue
Toshirô Yanagiba	...	Keisuke Honjo
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Moe Arai
Satoshi Tomiura	...	Tstsuro Sonobe

Also Known As:

Nobody to Watch Over Me (International: English title)
The Guardian (International: English title)

Runtime:

118 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIA | Japan:G | Singapore:PG

Company:

FILM

Trivia:

Japan's official submission to 82nd Academy Award's Foreign Language in 2010.

Excellent drama, cultural shock

I caught this at the US premiere in Santa Barbara, with the Director and the female lead, Mirai Shida. Strong social ties in Japan have an ugly flip-side: when somebody commits a crime, their family is automatically guilty by association, and all the relatives persecuted by absurd demands of apology. When Saori's brother is arrested for a double homicide, the whole family is subject to a media feeding frenzy that force police to provide protection for the family of the perpetrator.

One lonely cop is forced to take on the role of guardian to young Saori, and attempting to escape from attention and from the pervasive reach of media and internet, they will both come to terms with their personal demons. Well shot, and competently paced, the film is quite the cultural shock. Kimizuka's portrayal of the potential for web-fueled persecution is also downright scary, and reminiscent of the "Human Search Engine" tactics recently used by Chinese nationalists to locate and harass anti-Olympics demonstrators.

The role of the police, often presented as toothless facing criminals but ruthless in the treatment of witnesses, will also seem quite unusual to anyone used to US (or European) police work portrayals.

Mirai Shida gives an excellent, heartbreaking performance, showing a maturity in her portrayal of the Saori character well beyond her years.