Canada
USA
Japan
29/40
A repressed matriarch and unfortunately over-the-top circumstances – a disquieting earthquake, crushing debt, a dying ex-husband, a raging co-worker, and her son's girlfriend that take her to the brink.. The title " ;Hamon" is a standard Japanese word meaning, literally, "ripples", and metaphorically, the influences that each of us exerts on others. This is underscored several times in this movie with scenes in which the principals–the wife, husband, son, etc–stand in a shallow pond, and waves emanating from one character expand in the usual circular pattern to reach the others.An interesting enough visualization of interpersonal relationships, but nothing that couldn't be applied to any movie involving humans. Or, indeed, any living organism.The film's arc traces the tribulations of a Japanese housewife who is forced to deal with a husband's sudden disappearance, the death of said husband's father, the flight of the only-child son to university and then a career as far away as one can travel without leaving Japan (well, excepting Okinawa), and then the reappearance of said prodigal husband. Among other events.There is a fair amount of humor, a fair amount of bathos, some awkward scenes with the deaf fiance that the son brings home without any prior announcement.It was, I think, worth watching even before the final scene, which was surprising, rousing, invigorating, actually rather wonderful. Ole!
