Moving

Caught between her divorcing parents, a little girl is forced to come to terms with her new reality in this touching family drama.

Renko’s parents are splitting up. Her dad, Kenichi, moves out of the family home, leaving her behind with her mother, Nazuna. But Renko refuses to accept these strange new circumstances; her precocious demeanour turns to mischievousness and rebellion as she wades through the stages of grief towards a path of self-discovery and acceptance. Based on a novel by Hiko Tanaka, Moving is Shinji Sōmai’s 10th feature in an impressive oeuvre truncated by his untimely death at 53.

In recent years, the celebrated director has earned overdue recognition outside Japan; this poignant 1993 coming-of-age drama, originally screened in Cannes Un Certain Regard, has since been restored in 4K and won Best Restored Film at Venice Classics. In long takes characteristic of Sōmai’s canon, an expressive, energetic Tomoko Tabata shines as Renko, from whose perspective the story is captured. As stunning abstract moments break through the film’s naturalism, magic-realist flourishes emerge as particularly poignant.

“Sōmai transcends the tropes of stories of children dealing with divorce to deliver a film filled with indelible images about an unforgettable teenage girl who encounters the unknown and refuses to succumb to it.” – Variety