Going Home (Part 1-5)

Kore-eda Hirokazu, well-known from highly regarded films such as Maborosi and Still Walking, is making his first television series. Just like in his films, it focuses on family relationships and he works with his favourite actors, Abe Hiroshi and You. Tsuboi Ryota is an advertising man with a happy family life. His wife, a famous food stylist, his wayward daughter and colleagues make life difficult for him. This changes when his father ends up in hospital after an accident and Ryota receives a visit from an unknown woman. Curious as to her identity, he ends up in the village where his father was born, where stories about the mythical Kuna awake his interest. He obsessively continues his father’s quest to find this Kuna and slowly his own life starts to merge with life there. With the calm tempo, the many details that are apparently unimportant for the story and his typical visual style, Kore-eda seems to have chosen a primarily cinematographic approach in Going Home.