Monday 7 January 2013

Recommended: Going My Home

I say "recommended", but it's one of those strange shows that I really have no idea whether or not you'd like it.


This drama was a ratings disaster, but I can't help but love it. It was a very gentle series, with plenty of scenes which didn't add to the storyline, but which often had moments of delight.


I got the feeling that a lot of the time, the director deliberately left the camera rolling longer than it should, and then used a lot of that footage. There were scenes which seemed to be improvised with a lot of family arguing, and there was another scene were one of the actors seemed to get the giggles after a bad pun in the script. Although the laughter spread to the others, they kept going until the end of the scene.


Of course, it could all be that the script and acting were so natural that it looked improvised and, if so, then hats off to everyone concerned with this show.


I noticed how much care was taken with filming the preparation of food in various episodes, but very little in filming the serving of the food. In the same way, a lot of time was spent describing the myth of the Kuna, but no time in whether or not it was true.


Certainly, it's one of those series where the ending doesn't really matter, even though the ending is quite sweet in a sad way. It was all about enjoying the distractions and the details. Nothing too drastic or overwhelming. Just a story with good people in it, and I'm glad I got to spend some time with them.

4 comments:

  1. That's pretty much Koreeda right there. His films aren't what you would call very popular in Japan, yet he seems to be one of the most acclaimed outside.

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  2. Yes, I want to watch "Still Walking" now. And it's about time I got round to writing about "Air Doll" and "After Life".

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    1. I felt Going my Home resembled Still Walking a bit (without the Kuna), because it centers in family life and it's got the most humor. Similar to Kiseki. The rest of Koreeda's filmography, though good (particularly love Air Doll and Nobody Knows), it's quite depressing. LOL

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  3. Going my home is really a dorama I will remember for a long time as it was not only a pleasant watch but also had a nice story. I don't care about the ones that say "nothing really happened" ... I'd say they just didn't watch cloesely enough :)

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