An is a Japanese foreign language film about the lives of three very different people in three different stages of their lives who meet in a Okonomiyaki pancake restaurant.
The film centres around these three characters; a owner of a local Okonomiyaki shop, a young high school aged shop regular and an elderly woman. Even though each of the main characters are very different from one another, they each share a unique trait, that being loneliness.
An follows the unique relationship between each of the characters and discusses at length overcoming personal difficulties, loneliness and most notably shedding light on how people view senior citizens.
Synopsis
As a whole An is a very cute and quirky film. An elderly woman stumbles upon an employment ad at a local pancake shop and introduces herself to the owner. From there she begins to work at the store for very little, forming a mother-son relationship with the owner.
Throughout the film the relationships of the three characters deepen as they become closer. This building of emotion and companionship is the very core of this film.
The film goes on-words to reveal the past of each of the characters with both heartfelt and heartbreaking scenes.
Important Themes
For me I believe the real success of the film lied with talking about the role many of us associate with the elderly in society.
People end up forgetting that these people have lived through some much. They have so many experiences and have so many stories to tell.
They were not always how they look now. They once were like you, they were once young, they have loved, they have lived through monumental events and they have so much to share with the world. But we relegate their knowledge and experience to something akin to trivia.
In today's day and age, the elderly are easily forgotten and not thought as people with rich knowledge, experience and skill.
Most specifically the film highlights something of an issue very unique to Japan.
On August 6, 1945 the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki took place. Not only did the bombings destroy the cities, but they left in their waste massive amounts of radiation resulting in the deaths of thousands of people and rapid rise of disease.
This forced surviving victims to live in isolation well away from the general population for the rest of their lives.
An speaks to this point very emphatically depicting the realities of war, stigma and dehumanization of people living with disease.
Conclusion
Like many films in Asian cinema of the genre, An succeeds in providing scenes of humour and sincerity as well as portraying times grief and self-reflection.
An is quite a nice little film which I was pleasantly surprised by.
I would definitely include it on your to watch list.
It is rich in detail, story and emotion.
Not many films can successfully pair humour and kindness and grief and understanding so well.
