Koreeda Hirokazu: Pain and Fears of Modern Man

Abstract

Koreeda Hirokazu is one of the leading film directors of modern Japan, a brilliant representative of the new cinema of this country, whose filmography currently includes 30 works. They are mainly devoted to the problems of family and family relations - a fairly typical theme for the Japanese cinema. However, unlike many of his predecessors, including the generally recognized classics such as Ozu Yasujiro, Naruse Mikio, etc., who worked in the genre of family drama, Koreeda offers the audience a non-standard and even something shocking look at family problems. The main emphasis in his work is made not on the description of the family per se or the demonstration of the conflict between fathers and children, but on the display and analysis of various kinds of family collisions as well as cardinal changes that this cell of the Japanese society undergoes in modern conditions. One of his latest films created in this genre, that attracted great attention of the cinematic public in Japan and many other countries, is the film “Shoplifters”, which has been awarded the Golden Palm Branch of the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Koreeda became the first Japanese film director who received this honorary prize in the 21st century.