Director
Hirokazu Koreeda

Screenplay
Yoshihisa Ogita based on the short story by Teru Miyamoto

Cinematographer
Masao Nakabori

Cast
Makiko Esumi
Takashi Naito
Tadanobu Asano



Based on a well known Japanese novel by Teru Miyamoto, Hirokazu Koreeda's bittersweet film of love and loss won the special jury prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1995. It tells the story of a young woman who is deeply troubled by the notion that she brings death to the people close to her. One day her husband mysteriously and for no apparent reason commits suicide. She remarries and moves with her child from the city to live with her new husband in a village by the sea. However, beneath her newfound happiness, something intangible continues to haunt her...

Koreeda's treatment of his subject uses a very Japanese approach: rather than 'logic' or 'plot', he moves through a series of affecting visual images to evoke his main character's emotional state. Model-turned actress Makiko Esumi rarely sheds a tear, but - for example - the shots of rain-streaked windows as she fights to understand why her husband commited suicide are just as powerful. Images of death and mortality abound, yet this is a piece of haunting and poetic cinema that leaves you feeling better at the end. Maborosi (more usually spelt 'maboroshi') means 'illusion', or perhaps 'the beckoning light' in Japanese - a suitable suggestion of fragile, elusive beauty.