Movie Digest
A story that emphasizes human emotions. “Expressions can make impressions”, the whole story revolves around an ordinary man, Atsuhisa Yamada (Taiga Nakano), reflecting most of the Japanese population. He dreamt of a beautiful house with a garden and a dog for his wife Natsumi (Yuko Oshima) and his 5- year-old daughter Suzu (Yuno Ohta).
Once dreamt of becoming a singer, he and his childhood best friend Takeda (Ryuya Wakaba), now taking Chinese and English classes to establish a business. Atsuhisa, who doesn’t know how to express his inner emotions, one day, fell into turmoil, leading to a broken marriage, and had to leave his only daughter. Atsuhisa’s brother, a genuine hikikomori, eventually plays a key role in the story. What is the reason? What happens afterward? Watch the series to find out more.
The Feel-Good Part
This can’t be included in a ‘feel good movie’ category. It mostly highlights the raw reality of life. One of the drama’s fortes is the friendship shared between Atsuhisa and Takeda. Takeda is genuinely concerned and cared about Atsuhisa and is always there for him throughout the story. He even feels frustrated when he finds himself caught in the middle of the separated couple, as he is the mutual friend of both Atsuhisa and Natsumi, but still, he didn’t let go of Atsuhisa’s side.
The Disappointing Factor
“All the things we never said” helmed by Yuya Ishii is a bleak film where he deals with several issues, starting with the lack of expression, Dysfunctional Family, Infidelity, hikikomori concept, and prostitution. The narration was poetic even though it had some cliché that often happened in the Japanese Big Cinema Scene. The entire one-and-a-half-hour drama film is very raw and depressed, but that also added to highlights the core of the story.
In-Depth Analysis
Atsuhisa works as a librarian and is an introvert who rarely expresses his feelings. This drawback of his personality is revealed in a very subtle manner, where he tells that he is more expressive in English rather than in Japanese. From this, we get to know how fearful a person he is to let out his emotions in his language. In his small conversation with his brother and also from his reference to the death of his granddad, the existence of a person is more virtual and forgetful, if the person is not emotionally available. He even let out a remark that he can’t cry, because he is Japanese.
On the other hand, Natsumi vocalizes for him that she never felt that he loved her. The couple’s relationship bluntly reveals the complications of lack of communication.
Atsuhisa’s expression of love towards his daughter, in one of the scenes, really made an impact on that child, which again emphasizes the fact.
Yuya Ishii’s choice of filmography and props like a fan, the sound of the train, etc… are added advantages.
Star Power
Taiga Nakano perfectly played the part of the miserable and emotionally constipated Atsuhisa. The emotional outbreak of Takeda by Ryuya Wakaba also was commendable.
Overall Opinion
“All The Things We Never Said”, a very deep-rooted sentimental drama, is one of those hidden gems of Japanese cinema. One of those films we feel like boring, but scenes from the movie will surely leave a deep impression.
