Distance

Four relatives visit the place where their lovers, all members of the same cult, had committed collective suicide three years before. At this remote spot, they meet Koichi (Tadanobu Asano), a former member of the cult. He turns out to be the only survivor of the slaughter. When the members of the group want to return home, their car has disappeared. Koichi’s motorbike has gone too. They are forced to spend an uneasy and confrontational night together in the cult’s compound. It becomes a night when memories are shared, a night that will change their lives.In a thematic sense the loss of lovers Distance is reminiscent of KoreEda’s feature début Maborosi, but the film is more hermetic and less accessible than much of his earlier work. The journey of the group of relatives is filmed loosely in the hand, focusing on individual emotions. The memories and flashbacks were however filmed in longer, more restful takes.Distance was inspired by a real event: six years ago the Japanese Aum cult committed an attack with poison gas in the Tokyo underground and then took their own lives. KoreEda took an interest in the emotions of the relatives, their relationship with the cult members and the mourning process. Because his interest and sympathy is with them, he consciously underexposed the motives of the culprits.