Shindo: Zempen Akemi no maki - A slow burn of old-world manners

Is it worth your time?

If you have the patience for black-and-white dramas where most of the conflict happens behind a closed shoji screen, you might love this. If you need a plot that moves faster than a polite conversation over tea, you will probably hate it. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it has a specific, quiet mood that is hard to shake once you’re in it.

There is something about the way these characters hold their tea cups that tells you more about their misery than a two-hour monologue ever could. It’s all in the posture, really. Kinuyo Tanaka is just incredible here; she carries the whole movie on her shoulders without ever looking like she’s trying too hard.

I found myself staring at the background furniture more than I probably should have. The sets are so tidy, so perfectly arranged, that you can feel the tension in the room before anyone even opens their mouth. It’s like the house itself is judging the characters.

The pacing is… well, it’s deliberate. There’s a scene where two people just talk about a potential marriage arrangement, and it goes on for what feels like forever. At one point, I thought the film had actually frozen, but then someone blinked. It was kind of hypnotic.

It’s hard not to compare it to other films from that era. It doesn't have the wild energy of something like In Gay Madrid or the visual strangeness you see in Lunnaya krasavitsa. It’s much more grounded, almost stubbornly so.

Odd little observations:

• The way the light hits the floor mats in the afternoon scenes is strangely beautiful.
• Someone’s sleeve gets caught on a door handle and they just ignore it. I wonder if that was scripted or just a happy accident?
• The silence in the hallway scenes is louder than the dialogue.
• I really wanted someone to just yell, but nobody ever does.

There’s a specific look Shin Saburi gives the camera near the end of the first act. It’s not even a dramatic look, just a tired one. We’ve all felt that way at a family dinner, haven't we? It’s a very human moment in a film that is otherwise so rigidly polite.

Honestly, the movie is a bit of a mess if you try to track the narrative beats too closely. It just kind of drifts from one polite disaster to the next. But that’s the point. It’s not meant to be a tidy story. It’s meant to be a portrait of people trapped in their own manners. 🍵