OKAERI

Takeshi and Yuriko are a comfortable working couple. He teaches school; she transcribes manuscripts for a publisher. Takeshi doesn't think twice when he breaks a dinner date with his wife to go drinking with a buddy. But this small act of distance triggers something deep within Yuriko. She neglects her job and begins leaving their apartment at odd hours for “patrolling” throughout city streets, and speaks of talismans, sinister imposters, and pervasive conspiracies. A shaken Takeshi finds his own wife a stranger, and tries to bring back the Yuriko he knew. But did he truly know her? OKAERI is a bittersweet, straightforward story, but to call this a drama on mental illness is to oversimplify the emotions that roil beneath its placid surface. Communication, co-dependence, compassion, and formally beautiful camera compositions mark Shinozaki's feature debut. In Japanese with English subtitles.- Charles Cassady