Hirokazu Kore-eda makes movies that feel intensely Japanese, uncomfortably different, whilst applying honesty and intelligence to genuinely human stories. Asura is a seven-episode family drama about four wildly dissimilar sisters, their lives swirling around each other with familiar love, resentment, competition, and protectiveness. We have: the happily married wife of a Japanese businessman (who seems to absent himself now and then) and mother of teenage children; the professional flower arranger, a widow ensnarled in a romance with a married man; the insecure girlfriend of a boxing wannabe; and the cloistered librarian seemingly destined to remain a spinster. When their retired father is found to have a mistress and secret son, the drama of the series commences, swirling outwards with unpredictable outcomes. To this viewer, the first two episodes, with the slightly exaggerated Japanese acting, the chintzy music, the plain cinematography, and the matter-of-fact direction, were baffling, but quickly Kore-eda’s magic sets in and we are entranced by the characters and their realism. By season’s end (and I do certainly yearn for Season 2), all the characters are indelibly stamped over their stories and humanity’s messiness is portrayed with rare accuracy. A gem.
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