Wild Berries

『蛇イチゴ』

Produced by Hirokazu Kore-eda, the first feature from Miwa Nishikawa (who previously worked on Kore-eda’s Afterlife and Distance) wryly paints a bleakly cynical portrait of the Akechis, a dysfunctional family hiding behind a thin veil of normalcy and traditional values. Comically grotesque and dark, Nishikawa’s debut spends no time splitting hairs to construct a revealing snapshot of a family on the precipice of disintegration: a father who cannot admit to his family that he’s been out of work for years; a dutiful mother burdened by caretaking her senile father-in-law; an idealistic schoolteacher daughter engaged to be married; and a good-for-nothing son whose streetwise talents shine in his profession of con artist. When father Yoshiro’s debts are publicly revealed—causing scandal among neighbors and relatives—the family plunges headfirst into crisis, desperately attempting to stave off further misfortune as their worlds fall apart.

• Best Screenplay, Mainichi Film Awards 2004
• Best New Director, Yokohama Film Festival 2004

“ [A] joyously entertaining, inventively plotted, beautifully shot farce.” —Variety

Note: This feature is soft-subtitled. Please click on the “CC” button in the lower-right corner of the player to enable English subtitles

Streaming in the U.S. from December 3-23 as part of Flash Forward: Debut Works and Recent Films by Notable Japanese Directors | Rent together with Nishikawa’s The Long Excuse for only $15!