Japanese tales of laughter and desperation

Since 2007, the Northwest Film Center has given American audiences an annual taste of the latest Japanese films by way of its Japanese Currents series.

This year, the series is sponsored by the Japan Foundation, Los Angeles, Sapporo U.S.A. and the Japan America Society of Oregon. Attendees of the special benefit screening will have the opportunity to contribute to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.

Masahiro Kobayashi’s Haru’s Journey (2010) and Shuicha Okita’s The Chef of South Polar (2009) are the two films that will be shown this weekend. Both are character-driven stories about desperation and exhibit many themes of Japanese culture, especially the tradition of caring for loved ones.

Haru’s Journey is about a girl named Haru (Eri Tokugawa) who wants to work in Tokyo but needs to find a place for her grandfather, Tadao (Nakadai Tatsuya), to stay.

The two of them visit Tadao’s siblings, each of whom thinks Tadao is a selfish jerk. Haru cares for Tadao even though her aunt and uncle tell her to abandon him. Haru and Tadao keep looking for a place for the old man and are rejected at every turn.

Each of Tadao’s siblings has a peculiar eccentricity. They include a patronizing older brother entering a retirement home, a chastising older sister managing a restaurant, a younger brother in prison for a crime he did not commit and another brother who yells constant obscenities.

Tadao, like any movie grandfather, loves to tell stories of his past. He is grouchy, bossy, stubborn but lovable. Haru is a dutiful granddaughter and a hard worker, though she occasionally rebels and regrets it afterward.

Haru’s Journey is a masterpiece, moving and beautifully filmed.

The Chef of South Polar is about a crew of misfit scientists on a research expedition in Antarctica trying to survive a year away from their families. The main character, Jun Nishimura, played by the screenwriter of the same name, is their chef.

Nishimura is a family man, and although he works diligently and passionately, he misses his family very much. The rest of the crew includes a crazy doctor, a researcher obsessed with ramen and a homesick mechanic.

The crew spend a lot of their time in cramped quarters with very little to do. They goof off, watch exercise videos, make phone calls and play pranks. The best scene in the film is when the crew pours soy sauce onto a field of snow and ice, transforming it into a rudimentary baseball field.

Meanwhile, the men must ration their food to survive, making them grow mad with hunger. “We all share the same loneliness,” Nishimura says.

The Chef of South Polar is not as impressive at Haru’s Journey but is still worth checking out.