Yumiko is surprised, but Mark fesses up. Theres an early scene so telling when her fiancé, Mark, correctly identifies a couple passing by as Japanese. Or is she as equanimous to it all as she believes? In spite of being in a relative minority. Yumiko, meanwhile, has travelled abroad, carved out her career and, having assimilated, feels completely at home in the hustle and bustle of London. Shes now a successful critic and teacher. Even Yumikos beloved father disapproved, and her mother had to leave. A Japanese woman living in London, she has enjoyed the freedom to pursue her artistic goals abroad which her mother, a generation behind her, had to fight for back in Japan. Really, they should be about honesty, open consolation and saying good-bye.īut Yumiko has been distracted of late from this much honest introspection and open conversation because she has adopted a very specific role. Shes right: funerals all over the world are so often meticulously choreographed pieces of theatre during which mourners become scared in case they miss their queues, forget their lines, show too much emotion or none at all. Yumiko is attending her fathers funeral. Performing a piece, pretending to be something else They are clean, they are crisp, and the rooftops and mountains are sublime.Īdd in the Jenga-like dream sequence of a wooden, Japanese theatre stage tumbling apart then dispersing around young Yumiko, suspended in a void, and this is quite the spectacle. Youre going to adore these colour washes.

Just so happens by fumio obata