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Much of what tantalizes about the seemingly straightforward drama Harmonium is what makes it so difficult to describe. It is nominally a domestic drama, centering on a family whose normal middle-class existence as owners of a metal workshop is slowly, heartbreakingly upended by the arrival of Toshio’s old friend Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano). However, it holds more than a tinge of the thriller to it as well, and while the film never truly leaves its dramatic vein, writer-director Kôji Fukada’s skill is such that it moves around within this zone, assuming the quotidian and the suspenseful with shocking ease.

There are many components that make Harmonium unexpectedly engrossing, but chief among them is its sense of space. With some exceptions, most of the film takes place within the family home, a setting that becomes familiar as the narrative unfolds. It feels fully lived in, something borne out by Fukada...

Koji Fukada’s tale of a dull domestic routine disturbed builds to a bleak, stunning conclusion

In this dark Japanese drama, Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) and her husband, Toshio (Kanji Furutachi), lead a dull suburban existence that revolves around their precocious young daughter, Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa). When Toshio’s old friend Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano) turns up one day hoping for work and board, all slick white shirt and self-possessed flirtatious energy, their drudgery is disrupted. Toshio obliges, unable to refuse for reasons revealed later, setting a life-altering chain of events in motion, the tension ratcheted up with the help of harmonium-playing Hotaru’s clacking metronome.

At the centre of the film is a trio of characters whose contrasting personalities rub up against each other in interesting ways; tensions arise between the carnal Yasaka, repressed housewife Akie and Toshio’s weak, withholding masculinity. Tsutsui’s tightly coiled performance is particularly compelling, a fury burning beneath her wearied,...

In Koji Fukada’s slow, elegant film, the appearance of an old acquaintance throws a family out of balance

This highly accomplished Japanese drama, which won the prize in the Un Certain Regard section at last year’s Cannes, is well worth watching for those with the stomach for a cold, bitter, intoxicating deep drink of bleak. Director Koji Fukada’s latest is constructed according to a certain ruthless logic even if the method of its reckoning remains opaque. In a nondescript suburban house, metalworker Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) lives with his mousy Christian wife Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) and daughter Hotaru (Momone Shinokawa), a kid of about eight or nine who is learning to play the titular instrument, a sort of cross between a mini piano and an organ. The arrival of Yasaka (the always bewitchingly watchable Tadanobu Asano), an old acquaintance from Toshio’s past, throws the little triad out of balance.

"What? I wouldn't let myself be eaten!" Eureka has released an official UK trailer for Japanese director Kôji Fukada's latest film Harmonium, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this year and won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard category. Harmonium is a slow burn drama about a Japanese family. One review stated "the film's insights into the isolation evident in the relationships most take for granted – marriages, parent-child connections and long-term friendships – don't merely hit their targets; they smash them with a sledgehammer." The cast includes Mariko Tsutsui, Tadanobu Asano, Kanji Furutachi, Kana Mahiro, Takahiro Miura, Taiga, and Momone Shinokawa. This also reminds me of Hirokazu Koreeda's Like Father, Like Son a bit, but I'm sure it has plenty of insight to offer on its own. Have a look. Here's the official UK trailer (+ quad poster) for Kôji Fukada's Harmonium, direct from YouTube: In...

Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.

– Sony Pictures Classics have announced they have acquired the rest of Pedro Almodóvar’s full library of films, including “Pepi, Luci, Bom”; “Labyrinth of Passion”; “Dark Habits”; “What Have I Done to Deserve This?”; “High Heels” and “Kika.” Spc will release his latest, “Julieta,” in theaters on December 21.

Based on short stories by Nobel laureate Alice Munro, “Julieta” is “about a mother’s struggle to survive uncertainty. It is also about fate, guilt complexes and that unfathomable mystery that leads us to abandon the people we love, erasing them from our lives as if they had never meant anything, as if they had never existed. The cast includes Adriana Ugarte, Emma Suárez and Rossy de Palma. It...

The New York-based film distributor has picked up Koji Fukada’s family drama and upcoming North American premiere Special Presentation selection at Toronto.

Harmonium premiered in Cannes where it won the Un Certain Regard jury prize and will open theatrically in 2017 followed by digital and home video release.

The film is intended as a companion piece to Fukada’s black comedy Hospitalité and chronicles the collapse of a seemingly ordinary Japanese family.

Kanji Furutachi, Mariko Tsutsui, Momone Shinokawa and Tadanobu Asano star.

Film Movement brokered the North American deal with MK2.