Yureru (Sway) (DVD) (English Subtitled) (Japan Version) DVD Region 2

Yureru gets under the skin, and in a way that's hard to voice. With a simple story that yields complicated emotions, the film defies any kind of standard genre expectation. Though it circles around a court investigation into a woman's death, Yureru is neither murder mystery nor courtroom drama. What the film probes is not the case, but human nature itself, and it is this uneasy exploration into what lies beneath that makes the film so powerful and effective.

Mild-mannered and polite to a fault, Minori (Kagawa Teruyuki) selflessly stays put in his quiet hometown to run the family gas station and watch over the household. But underneath lies a harried man angry at his own impotence, bitter of his lot in life, and perhaps capable of unspeakable actions if pushed to the edge. In contrast, his estranged younger brother Takeru (Odagiri Joe) is a swaggering, emotionally distant Tokyo-ite who can't bother to show up to his own mother's memorial service on time. They are seemingly polar opposites - one keeps giving, the other keeps taking - and the two have a close, yet tense relationship that hints of years of unvoiced words and buried bridges. The brothers go hiking with Chieko (Makimura Yoko) whom Minori quietly likes. Chieko, however, has a past with Takeru and hopes to latch onto him to escape her current go-nowhere life. Before the day is over, Chieko falls to her death from a suspension bridge. Minori was next to her, Takeru was observing from a distance.

An investigation into Minori's part in her death provides the narrative framework from here on, but what matters is not the truth and rather perceptions, memories, and trust. Characters and relationships unravel in a subtly shocking manner, and yet the more that is revealed, the less certain the story becomes as the viewer can trust the characters no more than they trust each other. In the end, what we see is selfishness, self-delusion, resentment, fragility, and a painful yearning to rise above that.

Neither Minori nor Takeru are particularly likable human beings, and it is really a testament to the director and the actors that the film manages to make one care so viscerally about their fates. Kagawa Teruyuki is excellent as Minori, giving a soft, unsettling performance that both haunts and hurts. Odagiri Joe, who seems to have of late taken over the Asano Tadanobu title of appearing in every other Japanese film worth watching, continues to show he has a considerable amount of talent to back up that pretty face. This is his best performance yet. Most impressive though is director Nishikawa Miwa, whose assured screenplay and directing rightfully earned her quite a few accolades, including a Best Director win at the Blue Ribbon Awards. 2006 saw quite a few great Japanese films from great directors, including Nishikawa's mentor Kore-eda Hirokazu, but Yureru still easily stands out as one of the year's best offerings, and it's only her second film. Nishikawa could very well become one of the greats in due time.