It is very clear that Kei Chika-ura’s “Great Absence” is a personal film of his own, the kind of drama where one feels a connection to the material in its subtlety. Anyone who has lived through watching their parents deteriorate will recognize something in Chika-ura’s movie, it can at times feel indulgent in terms of pacing and length but never loses its subtlety, partly due to classy direction and an amazing performance by the iconic Tatsuya Fuji. The star of “In the Realm of the Senses” took home an acting award at San Sebastian this year and it is not hard to understand why. Rather than falling into any pitfalls that might be common with such a complicated character he actually transcends melodrama into which “Great Absence” could have become, transforming it into a tragic story about two men who are in danger of drifting apart for good. How do you reconcile and forgive when half of this relationship may not possess the emotional or mental capacity to do so?
Chika-ura’s “Great Absence” has a framing device that involves Takashi (Mirai Moriyama), an actor, who together with his wife Yuki (Yoko Maki), acts as producer on an avant garde production Exit the King by Ionesco. It’s like this play about a king and his kingdom vanishing at once although Chika-ura’s decision appears almost superfluous given what happens in “Great Absence”—that is how easily people lose everything including mind, hence Tsuji only has one chance to reunite with his son from whom he has been separated.
Takashi receives a phone call from the police after an incident at his father’s house forcing him and Yuki back there again. When they come back there is deeply confused Yohji who seems unsure whether or not he is; also absent Naomi Yohji’s long time partner as he alleges that she committed suicide. “Great Absence” is not a mystery/thriller, despite all of this. Yes, there are secrets and plot twists but Chika-ura prefers creating confusion to building up suspense. The script takes us back to some of the times when Takashi visited including one which reveals how tense their relationship was and why Naomi disappeared in the first place; it also allows the film to play out more like someone’s fragmented memories at the end of their life than anything else. While there are elements of dementia and displacement within “The Father”, “Great Absence” doesn’t go full-blown into it but instead chooses to unbalance its own audience.
Takashi is certainly unmoored after finding his father’s diaries, which reveal secrets about Naomi and his birth mother that he had no idea of. Imagine suddenly knowing about emotional matters of a distant parent, only to remain silent on them because that parent has no trust in their own memories and even the very sense of reality. ‘Great Absence’ deals with family secrets alright but is more preoccupied with how such secrets can be concealed and distorted by the ravages of time.
On certain occasions though, Chika-ura seems sluggish in his pacing, despite the fact that his direction could be strong enough to have one speculate whether he might soon become one of Japan’s great auteurs. The version shown at TIFF and San Sebastian was reported to last 152 minutes hence there must be some twenty extra minutes extracted between then and now yet even so it remains a film with dragging moments even at 132.
Yet it will always come back on course through the decisions made by either Moriyama or Fuji. In an elegant way, Fuji distinguishes between Yohji as a man of few words who pushed away his son and another version who has been breaking down due to emotions beyond his comprehension. “Great Absence” poignantly captures the rage episodes accompanying dementia; moreover it serves as an opportunity for one of Japan’s top actors to showcase what they can do best. At times there is still something within him which wants reconciliation but today he does not know how to handle anything let alone everything bad in his lifetime. Yet we shall all discover eventually that our true great absence will consist of time running out for us.
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