Life Can Be So Wonderful

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Movie: Life Can Be So Wonderful
Romaji: Sekai wa tokidoki utsukushii
Japanese: 世界はときどき美しい
Director: Osamu Minorikawa
Writer: Osamu Minorikawa
Producer: Kenjiro Nishi
Cinematographer: Akiko Ashizawa
Release Date: 2007
Runtime: 70 min
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

Plot

Osamu Minorikawa, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, makes his feature debut in the form of an emminently visual cine-poem, that distances itself from the narrative imperatives of dramatic fiction to concentrate on atmospheres, image and sound. The film is made up of five episodes drawn from everyday life: the meditations of a 38-year-old single woman who works as a nude model in an artists’ studio, the life of an elderly alcoholic in Osaka, a young couple making love, the story of an astronomer and his pregnant partner and the reflections of a younger single woman who speculates on the ungraspable ‘somethings’ present in daily life. The film’s cast, headed by Ryuhei Matsuda (Big Bang Love Juvenile A), lend an exquisite tone to each of the five episodes which, despite their routine nature, capture those brief moments and small details that normally go unnoticed from day to day.

Notes

Life Can Be So Wonderful

While the five stories told in the omnibus film Life Can Be So Wonderful are generally melancholy and quietly contemplative in tone, the title is not ironic. This first feature from young writer-director Osamu Minorikawa is instead a moody collection of “five cinema poems” that manages to find the grace, serenity and beauty in the minutia of everyday life -- even when that minutia may be tinged with sadness. The first story is a portrait of an aging nude model and her relationship to nature. In the second tale (perhaps the most moving), an elderly alcoholic man reflects on his lifelong passion for booze and bars. The third is an erotic examination of a young woman’s ambivalent relationship with her sexual partner (and with beverages). The fourth segment -- the most linear of the quintet -- examines a young astronomer’s reaction to his girlfriend’s new pregnancy. The final tale, as subtly moving as the preceding four, concerns a lonely travel agent’s interactions with her protective mother. While Life is an anthology film -- and though Minorikawa employs different visual styles for each of the five stories -- it does not feel fragmented; the film is very much a single piece and a beautiful one. The film looks at the solitude and uncertainty we all face and finds not self-pity, but transcendence and hope. The Japanese independent film equivalent to listening to an old blues or Nick Drake album at 3 in the morning with a bottle of wine, Life is understated but unforgettable. (Japanese with English subtitles) -- Travis Crawford