Miwa Nishikawa (Dear Doctor, Under the Open Sky), a pupil of the great Hirokazu Kore-eda, proves herself to be a fine writer and director in her debut feature with Sway. One could make a comparison between Sway and Rysuke Hamaguchi's recent Evil Does Not Exist. But while I find the city/country dichotomy a little unsubtle and naive in Hamaguchi's latest, Sway examines it with much more nuance.
Takeru Hayakawa (Joe Odagiri), a hip photographer in Tokyo, goes back to a small rural town to attend his mom's funeral. He confronts his gas station owning father and his older brother Minoru (great character actor Teruyuki Kagawa). It seems Takeru was the one who got away from drabby small town living and Minoru, always a mediator, remained and has been taking care of things, like working at the gas station. There is Chieko (Yoko Maki), a childhood sweetheart, who now works for the gas station too - after the economic downturn cost her her job, a couple of years prior. It is also clear that Minoru has feelings for her. After the funeral and all the blame game and awkward exchanges, Takeru and Chieko spend the night together. There are a lot of unsaid yearnings in her looks toward Takeru which he is oblivious to or doesn't care enough about. He just wants to get back to his life in Tokyo. Next day, by the urging of Minoru, the three of them go to the picturesque gorge with a swaying drawbridge across. It's the Hayakawa family picnic spot which their father often took the brothers to when they were young. After a confrontation on the draw bridge between Minoru and Chieko, she falls to the water and drowns. The rest of the movie is mostly a courtroom drama where the family dynamics were examined.
The film presents the deep chasm that can't be bridged between the generations in Japanese society amid the crippling economic downturn. Minoru's confession to the cops, originates from the mixture of envy, humiliation and resignation for meaningless life in the boring rural life as a gas station attendant, still living under the old school patriarchy. But Nishikawa shows that his envy of Takeru's success in the city is also misplaced, since Takeru's life is just as meaningless in superficial surroundings - a cool vintage car, a leather jacket, lots of one night stands. Nishikawa makes a subtle point to have Takeru's car break down near the end of the movie.
Nishikawa presents a snapshot of a Japanese society in mid-2000: one escapes the old school patriarchy to a meaningless life in superficiality. The other, full of envy and resentment, still trying to appease the old generation and living in a self-imposed prison. Odagiri and Kagawa are both terrific in their roles.
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