Review | His Lost Name film review: Koreeda assistant makes debut with tedious, infuriating drama
- Nanako Hirose fails to engage viewers with this lethargic story of a man recovering from a failed suicide
- The film is ‘a gruelling ordeal, utterly devoid of meaningful symbolism or subtext’
0.5/5 stars
A young amnesiac and a grieving widower find a modicum of solace in each other’s company in the debut feature from Nanako Hirose, former assistant to acclaimed filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda. Unfortunately, little of the Palme d’Or-winning director’s technique for character and storytelling is evident in His Lost Name, which proves a tedious, infuriating experience.
Yuya Yagira, who was just 14 when he won the best actor prize at Cannes for his performance in Koreeda’s Nobody Knows, plays a young man we first meet considering throwing himself off a bridge. We next see him washed up on a river bank, having gone through with his suicide attempt, albeit unsuccessfully. Discovered by ageing carpenter Tetsuro (Kaoru Kobayashi), he is taken in and nursed back to health.
Tetsuro installs his guest, who eventually introduces himself as Shinichi, as an apprentice at his wood shop. The staff are welcoming, especially Tetsuro’s fiancée Hiromi (Keiko Horiuchi), but Shinichi remains distant and painfully shy. Tetsuro’s wedding is imminent, but Hiromi suspects he is getting cold feet, in part due to a tragedy from his past, but also believes Shinichi’s arrival to be a factor. We also discover that Shinichi has been far from honest with his new hosts.
Hirose includes numerous lingering shots of Shinichi as he stares meaningfully at restaurant staff, kids playing football, and pachinko parlours, as if searching for some clue to his true identity. Whatever drove him to kill himself at the film’s opening clearly continues to plague him. Repeatedly we catch him wandering the roads, loitering beside the railway tracks, or gazing almost longingly out to sea – still desperate to end his pain.