Movie Review: Harmonium

Harmonium *** / *****

Directed by: Kôji Fukada.

Written by: Kôji Fukada.

Starring: Kanji Furutachi (Toshio), Mariko Tsutsui (Akié), Tadanobu Asano (Yasaka), Takahiro Miura (Atsushi Shitara), Momone Shinokawa (Hotaru), Taiga (Takashi Yamakami).

 

Harmonium is like a thriller played at slow motion. Watching it, you know what is going to happen – or think you do anyway (and to be fair, you’re probably right) because you’ve seen this type of story before. Yet, while most directors would want to make a lean, mean thriller out of this material – 90 minutes of twists and turns, of and suspenseful set pieces, Japanese filmmaker Kôji Fukada slows everything down almost to a snail’s pace. The film doesn’t have much in the way of those twists and turns and those suspenseful set pieces, because it is too focused on creating a mood of unease throughout. Whether you like that or not is a matter of taste – for the most part I did, but it was hard not to feel like at times Fukada was laying everything on just a little too thick, which hurts the film overall.

 

In the film, Yasaka (Tadanobu Asano) plays an ex-convict who shows up at the door of Toshio (Kanji Furutachi) and his family. He is a strange visitor, but even stranger, Toshio welcomes him into their home, and his workshop – where he gives him a job. Toshio’s wife, Akie (Mariko Tsutsui) is curious about this stranger – even strangely drawn to him in ways she doesn’t fully want to admit. Their daughter also likes the stranger. And yet, the whole things seems off. There is a secret, of course, between Toshio and Yasaka that will eventually comes out, and put what we think we know in a new light. This setup though – that would normally be dispatched in about 20 minutes of screen time, and be given away by the trailer, takes a full hour to come to light in the film. Fukada wants to establish the routine of this family – and then show just how much Yasaka throws that routine into quiet chaos. The second half of the film – set years after the first – is about that same family once again, and another stranger than enters their lives.

 

Personally, I liked the first half of the film more than the second. In the first, Fukada does a very good job – as does his excellent cast – at creating a mounting sense of unease and disharmony. On the surface, everything seems fine – the stranger makes everything uneasy though, and only gradually do you realize that the stranger is just an excuse for the unease within this family that would exist regardless. The second half of the film seems to be laying things on a little too thick – the score swells too often to underline the emotions, and it becomes a parade of misery in the final moments – the type you almost have to stop yourself from laughing at as it threatens to go completely over-the-top.

 

That first half really works, and there are moments in the second half that do as well. I also appreciated Fukada’s command of mood and tone throughout the film, and the chance he takes by slowing down the action in the movie this much – and risking losing his audience. This is a film that could have made a tense, but forgettable thriller. Because Fukada does what he does, the film sticks with you. Sure it’s flawed – but it’s memorable and insightful as well.