Movie Digest
A story, which is inspired by the real-life Japanese photographer, Masashi Asada. He gained widespread recognition for his unconventional family photographs.
Ryota Nakano directed the drama film, ‘The Asadas’, showcasing the growth of Masashi Asada (Kazunari Ninomiya) as a unique photographer. The drama starts with his childhood, with his parents and elder brother, Yukihiro (Satoshi Tsumabuki). Masashi’s father used to take photographs of both his sons every year as a family tradition. Masashi’s interest in photography got noticed by his father who gifted him the camera on one of his birthdays. Later on, for his school graduation photography project, he recreated a funny childhood incident with his family and was a huge success. This led to a series of staged family photographs, portraying different dreams of each of his family members, eventually published into a photo book. However, his family’s constant will to help and pampering has made Masashi a self-centered, careless young man, whose sole redeeming quality seems to be his eagerness to apologize. After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, Masashi changed his attitude towards life. What is the reason? What happens afterward? Watch the series to know more about it.
The Feel-Good Part
This can be included in a ‘feel good movie’ category. The director showed the growth and gradual development of Masashi, as a person and as a photographer, influenced by his family and life incidents, in a very smooth and clean manner. We feel happy tears in several scenes, especially his unique idea of taking photographs of different families, and also the most valuable and heart-touching family photograph he had taken after the earthquake mishap. We don’t feel depressed or vexed in any part of this drama film, even the climax itself gives out a happy vibe. The Asadas is a family we all want to be close with.
The Disappointing Factor
We don’t feel any disappointing factor as such in any part of the whole drama film. The lack of any suspense element may tend the audience to feel a little bored; otherwise, it’s all about making us feel comfortable with the life of ‘The Asadas’.
In-Depth Analysis
We get the development of the story through Yukihiro’s perspective, which is a good way narration to understand Masashi as a whole. The love of a family can either improve or spoil a person, but also has the power to convert an irresponsible person into a responsible one. Masashi’s over-supportive parents made him an irresponsible young man, who was constantly under the help of his brother and his childhood sweetheart Wakana (Haru Kuroki). The supportive and encouraging family, especially while taking eccentric family photographs and also their acceptance at the time of his wandering life, has made a good impact on the whole movie. Wakana also plays an important role in molding Masashi’s character.
One of the highlighted behaviour of Masashi is his way of accepting his fault and apologizing for it. This aspect of Masashi’s character-revealing the reality of overusing the word ‘sorry’, and getting away with it easily. However, his family and Wakana always nurtured and encouraged his talent in photography, which is one of the most interesting aspects of a drama film.
Another beautiful scene shows Masashi’s glistened eyes during one of his photographic sessions with a family.
As a whole, we can say that Masashi is a man with both good and bad. We get to see the changes in Masashi more in the second half of the drama film.
Star Power
Kazunari Ninomiya perfectly portrayed Masashi, without demeaning the innocence of the character. All other casts, especially the small girl from the disaster site, perfectly played their parts in a very natural and real sense.
Overall Opinion
‘The Asadas’, a very light-hearted, simple yet meaningful. At times the movie maybe a little boring, but still a picture worthwhile to watch on the whole.
