Synopsis
A recently widowed writer whose wife died in a bus crash comes to terms with his grief—or lack of it—in caring for the children of a working man who also lost his wife in the same accident.
The Long Excuse
2016 ‘永い言い訳’ Directed by Miwa Nishikawa
Cast
Director
Producers
Akihiko Yose Kazumi Kawashiro Asako Nishikawa Ippei Fukuda Takashi Iwamura Kiyoto Matsui Shûichi Nagasawa Yasuhito Nakae Tetsuo Ohta Hideki Tagami Masarou Toyoshima Kiyoshi Nishikawa Kenji Hamada
Writer
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Cinematography
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Alternative Titles
아주 긴 변명, 不道德的丈夫, Nagai iiwake
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"Don't judge my happiness by your standards" - Sachio.
- Film Club Ranked: boxd.it/3M2sq
Cute kids!
A slow paced and straight forward melodrama about grief that is depressing and unusual. Miwa Nishikawa's direction stands out here as does the lead performance by Masahiro Motoki which I found haunting. I really enjoyed parts of this and loved parts of it but you also really feel the two hour run time, I think especially because this film takes a bit of time to get going.
Recommended
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After a traumatic moment in my life, I grew my hair out.
I had always wanted to try it longer, but I wasn't doing it for cosmetic reasons. Exactly why I was letting it grow, I can't say for sure. Maybe I refused to let go of the trauma I felt that day, keeping it uncut as a reminder of what I went through, some strange kind of protest against the pain I had to bear. Maybe it was to try and reidentify myself, making a choice I knew my family would hate for the sake of setting myself apart from them. Maybe it was simply from apathy, my fundamental dissatisfaction with myself making it so I no longer saw…
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There’s definitely no subtlety to be found here, but is that always a bad thing? I don’t think so.
A bus crash brings two men and a boy together. On one side is a writer whose relationship with their wife had been damaged for a long time. On the other is a truck driver whose relationship with their wife had been steady for a long time. With the bus crash, both men find their wives dead and must deal with the grief that follows.
The writer, Sachio, finds himself at a crossroads. When questioned by the police about what his wife was wearing the day before, he answers incorrectly. They had been out of love for who knows how long…
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Every person deals with grief and loss in different ways. We navigate that feeling in such unique and personal ways that it’s hard to connect with other people during that time. But connecting with others is sometimes exactly what will help ease that pain.
I like that this movie shows two men having such different reactions to loss. One, devastated and one, seemingly indifferent. Our relationships to people in our lives are often complicated and that makes the grieving process come with a lot of complicated feels as well. Do you regret the choices you’ve made? Should you be sadder than you are?
I like this story, it’s a warm story despite being about such sadness. Humans need each other to lean on for support, to learn from, and to love.
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There isn’t a right way to experience bereavement. There isn’t one single way to cope with loss.
That’s probably why Miwa Nishikawa’s portrayed two opposite reactions to losing a loved one and whilst doing so crafted a film that pretty intricately examines the many nuances of grief. On one hand there’s a man who sits idle in his truck whilst replaying the final voice message left by his wife, unable to move on from such a loss even at the behest of his children’s livelihood. On the other hand you have a man who seems to be indifferent to his loss but slowly starts to reconcile with his regrets through moments of realisation, bouts of self-destructive behaviour and even by traversing the…
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Sachio: Manche Menschen können keine Kinder haben
Manche wollen gar keine Kinder haben
Ich selbst wollte nie ein Kind haben
Die Welt braucht nicht mehr Arschlöcher wie mich.
Schon mal daran gedacht, selbst Gene zu hassen?!
ساکی هو: بعضی آدمها نمی تونند بچه دار شن
بعضی ها هم نمیخوان بچه دار شن
من خودم نمی خواستم هیچ وقت بچه ای داشته باشم
دنیا به کثافت های بیشتری مثل من احتیاج نداره
تا حالا شده به این موضوع فکر کنید که از ژن هاتون متنفرید؟! -
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A nice entry in the Koreeda school of Japanese melodrama of family and grief.
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Film Club #ivelostcount
As I've said before, I love a good take on the individual intricacies of how grief works, and this is one of the more complete representations I've seen. The arc the main character goes through feels so real: the guilt, the guilt over not grieving how people think you should, the acceptance, the anger, the discovery of something you can care about and feed positivity into, the attempt to forget and the inevitable self-hatred spiral of realizing you haven't moved on: it's so strongly portrayed. People feeling emotions differently than you can be very off-putting, so it's likely you won't jive with the lead for a while just like I didn't. But the innate kindness in his…
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Sachio and Yoichi, lost their wives in a bus accident. Though Sachio's marriage not a happy one, he still felt devastated because of her absence. At that time, he doesn't realize yet that he is in grief, until he has a chance to taking care of Yoichi's kids. Gradually, he finally grasp the real situation he has been dealing with all this time.
Actually, I'm always wondering, how can a husband get through a day without his wife. And how children get through a day without their mother. If I gone, I hope God make them forget, so they don't need to feel the pain of loss and grief.
The Long Excuse is a family story with realistic point of view from a husband, a father, and a child. How they cope with grief and how they manage their emotions through the mourning period.
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This is a movie that I honestly never heard of until it was picked for this week's movie for Film Club. It took me a while to find a way to watch this movie because the movie has no official release in the United States at the moment. After watching this movie for the first time, I really enjoy it. The acting in this movie is excellent and I also enjoy the pretty cinematography as well. The movie looks great because you get plenty of pretty shots of Japan in this movie.
The best thing about this movie is the story because the main character is a novelist that makes everyone's lives so difficult for everyone…