By Mike Collett-White
BERLIN (Reuters) - A moving Japanese film based on a true
story shows how a selfless mother’s love for her children
helped the family survive tragedy and danger brought on by the
conflict with China and soon after it, World War Two.
Veteran director Yoji Yamada, best known in the West for
his samurai trilogy starting with “The Twilight Samuria,” based
his new film “Kabei - Our Mother” on the memoirs of Teruyo
Nogami.
The film screened in the main competition at the Berlin
Film Festival on Wednesday.
“Kabei” is set in the outskirts of Tokyo where Kayo Nogami,
known as Kabei by her family, lives a frugal but happy life
with husband Shigeru and two daughters, Hatsuko and Terumi.
Without warning Shigeru is detained by police under the
Peace Preservation Law under which to speak out against war was
considered a crime against the state.
Throughout the movie, set mainly in Kabei’s small but
meticulously kept home, the military buildup and society’s
growing intolerance to dissent is felt, while key moments in
history like Pearl Harbor are relayed through radio broadcasts.
Pressured by the authorities to recant, the prisoner of
conscience refuses to back down, leaving the serene Kabei,
played by Sayuri Yoshinaga, to fend for herself.
Family and friends rally around, but in the end Kabei must
bear the burden of raising the family alone at the same time as
living with the loss of some of the people she loves most. Continued…
