For the most part, well directed and acted. Actress Hiromi Nagasaku especially conveys the complex feelings of a women unable to obtain a biological child with her current partner. The script is loaded with melodramatic possibilities, but the director mostly refuses to allow her actors to play this card. However, the photoplay is much too long and sometimes simply boring. Some sequences are edited in the style of documentary interviews. Cinematography is poor. Often scenes look more like a TV show (lots of extreme close-ups) than a big-screen movie. Bleached out scenes from shooting directly into the light predominate. Score is stuck on one theme. Subtitles seem close enough. Ending is too contrived. Best line: "I'm from Nara ~ oh yes, deer country!" Viewed at JICC J-Film Fest.
Review of True Mothers
