Still Walking

"Hirokazu Koreeda’s touching, acutely observed drama…dissects family allegiances and fissures with uncommon grace."

VILLAGE VOICE

"A touching, intelligent and nostalgic picture…There is guilt, in more shapes than one; a certain degree of veiled greed; whimsical sadness and a constant touch of irony that prevents the plot from sinking into a self-accusatory, morbid piece."

SCREEN DAILY

"A subtly nuanced family drama that resonates long after its hushed ending…The result of a flawless script…Kore-eda listens to his characters’ inner thoughts with the attentiveness of a piano tuner, and reveals them with the lightest inferences."

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"This is exactly the kind of film — quiet, modest, untroubled by ambitions of importance — that risks being lost in the news media shuffle. And yet it is so completely absorbing, so sure of its own scale and scope that while you’re watching it the rest of the world fades into irrelevance."

THE NEW YORK TIMES

"Piercingly True."

THE TIMES

"“Still Walking”...shows Kore-eda in top form. The film elegantly captures the tensions between its affectionate cast of characters…Kore-eda’s script is as solid as his shots: There are tossed-off lines that reveal multitudes, a near pitch-perfect balance of the sober and the lightweight, the cynical and the hopeful, and skillfully handled parallel stories about deaths in the families."

INDIEWIRE

"Must be the festival’s most accomplished international premiere… shows Kore-eda in top form… script is as solid as his shots… balance of the sober and the lightweight, the cynical and the hopeful…"

INDIEWIRE

"By no means a minor picture… cast offers splendid performances all through… a delight to behold – humorous, moving, affectionate."

SCREEN INTERNATIONAL

"Its modest surface belies the depths of a lovely seriocomedy… this gem should attract interest from discerning offshore fest, arthouse and tube programmers… often quite funny, and suffused with warmth even amid discordant notes."

VARIETY

"Straightforward and accessible…the conversation doesn’t spill over into emotional or physical violence…meticulous in cataloguing how a family can smile at each other tea and then casually rip each other apart whenever someone leaves the room. Particularly noteworthy is the performance of Kirin Kiki."

AV CLUB

"The film’s joys, of which there are many, revolve around the universal elements of family. Even though Still Walking takes place in contemporary Japan, you’ll recognize your own parents, your own siblings, your own children and nieces and nephews. The way families love and bicker, the way they laugh and tease…. The atmosphere of Ozu permeates the film, though Kore-eda has little interest in adopting the master’s style. Instead, it’s the quietness and the movie’s humanity, along with a few visual motifs, that make the connection."

DAILY PLASTIC

"A film of great subtlety that builds slowly but steadily, thanks to the steady hand of writer-director-editor Kore-eda…the Yokoyamas seem like a real-life family, thanks to the utterly natural and perfectly complimentary ensemble performances….it is a very honest and direct film, whose elegiac conclusion has an undeniable power of its own."

J.B SPINS

"Directing his own brilliantly measured screenplay, Hirokazu Kore-eda frames his characters in long, fixed takes, turning a coolly observational eye on the assembled party as they deflect rather than confront potential sources of conflict or submerge their accumulated regrets in the performance of domestic ritual…Kore-eda smartly portions out a few generous flourishes—like a perfectly lovely sequence in which an orange butterfly, taken by the grandmother to be the embodiment of her dead son, flutters around before landing on the picture of the deceased, and the film’s epilogue, signaled by an ellipsis of shattering abruptness, which is unusually wise about the ways in which, for all our deepest regrets, life continues heedlessly on."

SLANT