With Palme d'Or-winning Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda's new film MONSTER arriving on our screens from 15 March, we are delighted to present a mini-season of his finest earlier works - with exclusive video introductions by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp - across Sundays and Mondays in March. Check our website for full details.
Still Walking is a family drama about grown children visiting their elderly parents, which unfolds over one summer day. The aging parents have lived in the family home for decades. Their son and daughter return for a rare family reunion, bringing their own families with them. They have gathered to commemorate the tragic death of the eldest son, who drowned in an accident fifteen years ago. Although the roomy house is as comforting and unchanging as the mother's homemade feast, everyone in the family has subtly changed. This is a typical dysfunctional family, bonded by love as well as resentments and secrets.
With a subtle balance of gentle humor and wistful sorrow, Kore-eda portrays just how precious and exactly how annoying, family can be.
Jasper Sharp is an author, critic and filmmaker known for his work on Asian cinema and the co-founder (with Tom Mes) of the Japanese film website Midnight Eye. His books include The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film (2004), joint-written with Tom Mes, Behind the Pink Curtain (2008) and The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema (2011). He co-directed The Creeping Garden (2014), a documentary about plasmodial slime moulds with Tim Grabham, and The J-Horror Virus (2023) with Sarah Appleton.
£100/year gets you: 6 free cinema tickets, 10% off all tickets at Riverside, 10% off our various bars & bakery, free popcorn every cinema visit, no booking fees, AND MUCH MORE
