Romanian film review – Father and son: The Japanese Dog

Câinele japonez/The Japanese Dog is Tudor Cristian Jurgiu's long-feature debut, a gentle portrait of a lonely man and his ties to the surrounding world. Jurgiu has been one of the most exciting young filmmakers around. His short films are without exception sharp and insightful and their quality has not gone unnoticed: his latest, În acvariu/In the Fishbowl was awarded at last year's Cannes film festival and since then has been snatching one award after the other. Obviously, the expectations were very high for his first long-feature film and I have to say Jurgiu has met them with admirable skill. The Japanese Dog is an intelligent, sensitive and well-done little film. Veteran actor Victor Rebengiuc plays a taciturn farmer recovering from the death of his wife in a devastated flood. Having also lost his house, Costache spends his days trying to fix up his new home and generally avoiding his neighbors. The old man turns out to have a son who lives in Japan and whom he hasn't told anything about his mother's death. The son finds out though and rushes to his home village, accompanied by his Japanese wife and their 7-year old son. What follows are a few days in which the lonely and grumpy Costache gets a bit closer to his son and finds happiness in his newly-found family, only to be overcome again by sadness when their day of departure arrives. Rebengiuc is convincing in a role in which he mirrors his most famous one to date, his portrayal of the dignified and authoritarian father in Moromeții/The Moromete Family. He is an actor who needs little dialogue to convey a wide range of emotions and the film is truly his. The same can't be said about all his peers: Șerban Pavlu does well as the troubled son but Kana Hashimoto as his wife and adorable Toma Kashimoto as the little boy are sadly not given enough room to be more than pleasant company. Other roles are even less rounded while some actors have some problems with delivering lines naturally. Other than that though, this is a well-made picture and its perspective on old age and familial structures in a globalized world is acute and touching. The technical details are also fine (the camera work is especially beautiful) and the film does a fine job of establishing life in a rural area with all it's beauty, melancholy, harshness and gentle humor. S low, understated and sensitive, The Japanese Dog is a quietly impressive debut indeed and kudos to Jurgiu for choosing minimalism and restraint of emotion for such dramatic material. The movie is currently screened at Bucharest's cinema Union (eg. today, 16 January, at 5pm) and if you are not in Bucharest, you can still catch it on TV thanks to HBO's ever-reliable programming of Romanian films: it's running this Saturday, 18 January, at 4.45pm.