47/20
A repressed matriarch and unfortunately over-the-top circumstances – a disquieting earthquake, crushing debt, a dying ex-husband, a raging co-worker, and her son's girlfriend that take her to the brink.. The title " ;Hamon" is a standard Japanese word meaning, literally, "ripples", and metaphorically, the influences we each of us exert on others. This is underlined several times in this movie with scenes in which the principals–the wife, husband, son, etc–stand in a shallow pond, and waves emanating from one character expand in the usual circular pattern to reach the others. interesting enough visualization of interpersonal relations, but nothing that couldn’t be applied to any movie involving humans. Or, indeed, any living organism. The film’s arc traces the tribulations of a Japanese housewife who is obliged to deal with a husband’s sudden disappearance, the death of said husband’s father, the flight of the only-child son to university and then a career as far away as one can travel without leaving Japan (well, excepting Okinawa), and then the reappearance of said prodigal husband. Among other events. There is a fair amount of humor, a fair amount of bathos, some awkward scenes with the deaf fiance that the son brings home without any prior announcement. It was, I think, worth watching even before the final scene, which was surprising, rousing, invigorating, actually rather wonderful. Oh!