Born Bone Born

Film description

A comedy-drama about… a funeral? In Aguni, one of the islands of Okinawa archipelago, the custom of washing the bones of loved ones on the seaside rocks four years after their burial still remains alive. The Shinjo family gathers to say the final goodbye to their mother after a long period of not seeing each other. However, it is hard to hide the fact that the widower Nobutsuna has a serious problem with alcohol, and the advanced pregnancy of unmarried Yuko immediately provokes gossips of the small town's inhabitants. Only the son, the wise but quite arrogant Tsuyoshi, seems to be living a peaceful life of a corporate worker with his loving wife and child.

Japanese cinema has a long tradition of films touching upon the themes of death and funeral rites: Toshiyuki Teruya , a comedian with origins in Okinawa, enriches it introducing elements of the island’s culture and skilfully combining unique local customs with a universal message. Lightly and with an excellent feeling for dramatism he leads his characters through the waves of tangled contradictory emotions, familiar to every family. Nostalgic warmth meets pain and reproaches hidden for years, the mourning is mixed with silent yet joyful anticipation of the birth of a new life. Yet the director manages to avoid easy sentimentalism by introducing sharp humour into the picture of a family meeting and removing a gloomy patina from the centuries-old tradition. The film leaves an impression of a walk on the ocean shore: a wind in your hair and a slight aftertaste of salt on your tongue.

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Jagoda Murczyńska