Chronicle Of My Mother(HKAFF 2018)

Closing Film, Busan International Film Festival

Special Grand Prix of the Jury, Montreal World Film Festival

In 1975, author Inoue Yasushi combined three autobiographical short stories into a single novel, tracing his sometimes-strained relationship with his dementia-afflicted mother in her final years. Director Harada Masato channels the likes of Ozu Yasujiro and Naruse Mikio with this measured and touching mother-son drama. As Inoue’s alter ego – a self-centered writer who is still coming to grips with his mother’s abandonment during the war – Yakusho Koji commands the screen with gravitas. Meanwhile, Kiki Kirin is heartbreaking as the writer’s mother, an old woman who grapples with slowly losing the memories that she holds most dear.