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Futari
Us Two
Chizuko's Younger Sister
Japan 1991
produced by Kuniyoshi Kawashima, Kyoko Obayashi, Shuji Tanuma for NHK Enterprises, PSC Company/Shochiku
directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
starring Hikari Ishida, Tomoko Nakajima, Ittoku Kishibe, Sumiko Fuji, Toshinori Omi, Chika Shibayama, Yuri Nakae, Wakako Shimazaki, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Naoto Takenaka, Bengaru, Yoshitaka Zushi, Hitoshi Omae, Kiminobu Okumura, Yasufumi GHayashi, Noriko Nichiyama, Hiromi Oda, Etsuko Nami, Yumiko Fujita, Wakaba Irie, Keiko Masuda
screenplay by Chiho Katsura, based on the novel by Jiro Akagawa, music by Joe Hisaishi
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Chizuko (Tomoko Nakajima) has always been the perfect girl while her
younger sister Mika (Hikari Ishida) has always been considered a bit slow
and clumsy and unable to live up to her sister's high standards. But then
Chizuko dies, and suddenly it's up to Mika to live up to everybody's
expectations - which is hard inasmuch as everybody compares her to
Chizuko. However, Mika is not alone, the spirit of Chizuko is always with
her, and lends a helping hand in everything, be it a piano concert, a
relay race at school, or even Mika's lovelife - oddly enough, she's in
love with a guy (Toshinori Omi) who has first fallen for Chizuko. Mika's
parents (Ittoku Kishibe, Sumiko Fuji) meanwhile find it far more difficult
to handle Chizuko's death, and mother soon retreats into a dellusional
state while dad uses his job as an excuse to move to another town, where
he soon finds himself a girlfriend. When mum learns about his affair, her
condition worsens and she has to be sent to an asylum, leaving Mika all
alone at their home. But Mika grows with the experience, and even when
Chizuko's spirit finally leaves her for good, she's looking to a bright
future, as she knows Chizuko will always be in her heart ... Rather
episodic blend of ghoststory and feelgood film, in which all characters
(especially women) repeatedly hug each other. Now this is not bad in
itself, unfortunately though, Futari makes very little out of its
basic premise, and it fails to tie up its many episodes to a stringent basic
plot, so the whole plotline seems to wander around aimlessly instead of
going anywhere in particular. Thus, after 2 and a half hours the film
comes to an end at a rather deliberate point in the narrative, and the
story's resolution sounds equally deliberate. That all said, the film
isn't all bad, it's competently and subtly directed, well acted and the
lack of special effects - to spice up the ghost-aspects of the story
- is actually a good thing. The whole thing just isn't worth 150
minutes of your life, believe me!
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