Still Grieving: mobility and absence in post-3/11 mourning films

ABSTRACT

Post-3/11 mourning films have thus far gained little scholarly attention. This paper aims to correct that imbalance by analyzing a novel and three films that deal with loss and absence: Tendō Arata’s The Mourner and its film adaptation by Tsutsumi Yukihiko, as well as Nakagawa Ryūtarō’s films Calling and Tokyo Sunrise. While the type of loss in each film differs, all three films focus on mobility and absence in the process of mourning. This paper aims at expanding the scope of the study of so-called shinsaigo eiga (films dealing with the 3/11 tsunami and its aftermath) to include the role of mobility and absence in cinematic mourning as well as offering an analysis of a rare representation of male mourning in Japanese film in the wake of the recent spate of disasters that have afflicted Japan.

KEYWORDS:

• 3/11 disaster
• mourning film
• male mourning
• mobility
• absence
• Nakagawa Ryūtarō
• Tendō Arata

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Mitsuyo Wada-Marciano for her support and insightful feedback during the publication of this article, Timothy W. Pollock for his patience and suggestions, and Tokyo New Cinema for a permission to use images from Tokyo Sunrise.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Yutaka Kubo is an Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum, Waseda University. His research interests include: cinematic forms of queer sensibility in the films of Kinoshita Keisuke, queer film theory, youth and ageing in films, and the invisibility of male intimacy in contemporary Japanese cinema.

Notes

1. In Calling, there is a moment in which F. Scott Fitgerald’s Tender Is the Night appears. It is possible that a young wife in Tender Is the Night, who is mentally ill, is a source of inspiration for a silent wife in Calling.

2. At the shore near the cliff, Ren and Risako meet a group of children flying kites. While Risako can easily fly the kite, Ren fails to keep it in the air. The falling of the kite may be accidental, but one of the children tells Ren that he needs to relax. It suggests that Ren’s body is still stiff at this point in the film.

3. Sendai Mediatheque established the centre for remembering 3.11, also known as recorder311, in 2011. One of its exhibitions, ‘3 gatsu 12 nichi hajimari no gohan [March 12th: Food of the Beginning]’, displayed seventy-two pictures that captured survivors’ memories of food from March 11 to May 24, 2011. Many of the comments written by survivors on Post-it notes indicate a direct connection between food and life such as: ‘Taberu koto wa ikiru koto [to eat is to live]’ (Center for Remembering 3.11 n.d.).