Aruitemo Aruitemo (Still Walking) (2008)

100% of critics liked it
(59 reviews)
88% of users liked it
(2,496 ratings)

Director Hirokazu Kore-eda writes and directs this family drama that unfolds over the course of a single summer day as the Yokoyama family gathers for a rare reunion held to commemorate the death of the one who was taken before his time. It was 15 years ago that eldest Yokoyama son, Junpei, drowned… More Director Hirokazu Kore-eda writes and directs this family drama that unfolds over the course of a single summer day as the Yokoyama family gathers for a rare reunion held to commemorate the death of the one who was taken before his time. It was 15 years ago that eldest Yokoyama son, Junpei, drowned in a tragic accident, and the only changes around the family home since that fateful day are so subtle that they're not likely to be noticed by anyone outside of the immediate family. Retired family patriarch Kyohei (Yoshio Harada) used to run a successful medical clinic out of the home, though the lights in his medical examining room haven't even been turned on in years. The tiles in the kitchen where energetic Toshiko (Kirin Kiki) cooks family meals are slowly coming loose, and as youngest son Ryota (Hiroshi Abe) arrives home, he does his best to hide the fact that he's currently unemployed. His older sister, Chinami (You), has also arrived with her family, and does her best to entertain everyone despite the undeniable cloud of melancholy hanging over the home. As the festive gathering commences and Toshiko lays out a lavish meal, it gradually becomes obvious that resentment and sorrow bonds this family as powerfully as love. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 54 min.
Directed By: Hirokazu Koreeda
Written By: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jun 28, 2008 Wide
On DVD: Mar 1, 2010
Studio: IFC Films

Critic Reviews

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
Still Walking strikes an extraordinary balance between the moment-to-moment pleasure of life and the inevitable regret that accompanies time's passing.
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
Pitch-perfect and profoundly moving...
James Berardinelli, ReelViews
The tone is perfect; this is one of those rare films that, despite being rooted firmly in the world around us, is utterly absorbing and capable of reducing the immediacies of life into abstract thoughts in the back of one's mind.
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
Though [Koreeda] has made a film of droll and dry observational precision, its emotional minimalism is almost fetishistic -- and, by the end, a tad frustrating.
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
It will strongly move you, but you won't be able to say exactly why. It illuminates 24 hours in the life of a Japanese family, and though it may appear that not much is happening, by the end everything is revealed.
Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle
The director has said that, though the story was inspired by the deaths of his parents, he hoped to make a film "brimming with life." He's succeeded.
Mark Pfeiffer, Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema
Still Walking is so uncommonly and beautifully perceptive about how families interact that it feels as natural as putting one foot in front of the next.
Peter Canavese, Groucho Reviews
Taking place over little more than a day in the life of a family, Kore-eda's film locates the profound in the mundane. [Blu-ray]
Chris Cabin, Slant Magazine
The absence of loved ones and what we imagine our loved ones will become fuels the subtle delights of Still Walking, Hirokazu Kore-da's grounded yet graceful contemplation of the Japanese family in transition.
Sean Gandert, Paste Magazine
It's about what it means to be a family, with all of the joy and disappointment that comprises, and if Still Walking doesn't say anything particularly new on the subject, at least what it does say is said profoundly well.
Jeffrey Chen, ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Koreeda makes it worth our while to watch these people, allowing us to dig for nuggets of information, piecing them together, and learning something about the resilience of family bonds along the way.
Nicholas Barber, Independent on Sunday
A delicate, devastating Japanese tragicomedy.
Anton Bitel, Little White Lies
while this film is full of all the bitterness, regret, jealousy, disappointment, deceit and awkward love that make up any family, it depicts these with a calm restraint and subtlety, excluding even the slightest hint of melodrama
David Parkinson, Empire Magazine
Subtle and multi-layered film-making with compelling performances.
David Jenkins, Time Out
Koreeda's almost sage-like understanding of what makes modern families tick places him and this wonderful film in the league of Japan's grand master, Ozu, and you can't ask for higher praise than that.
Kevin Maher, Times [UK]
A beautifully measured melodrama that owes much to Yasujiro Ozu's Japanese classic Tokyo Story.
Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]
This is a higher order of storytelling, and this gentle, lovely film is impossible to watch without a lump in the throat.
Sukhdev Sandhu, Daily Telegraph
An acutely observed and tenderly rendered portrait of family, mortality and remembering.
Tom Dawson, Total Film
Koreeda's big theme is the transience of all our lives, but he doesn't make a meal of it. Instead, he essays a moving restraint that evokes Ozu's vintage domestic dramas - no mean feat.
Derek Malcolm, This is London
Full of the small revelations that make up everyone's memories and regrets. It is beautifully acted too.

Read all 23 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Randy T

Richly layered family drama that's poignant and wonderfully human. Even the animosity and strife is infused with warmth. Kore-Eda knocked this one out of the park.
Jan Marc M

Still Walking is a subtly beautiful film-making that revels in its simplicity in presenting complex honest emotions. Fine visual artistry. Gently tense that delivers a calm delight.
Alireza M

A beautiful poetic movie from director of Nobody Knows.The ending was the main point of movie,which gave us a deep feeling.It tried to bring up questions such as why we should make life intolerable and instead of loving each other grieve for the ones we have lost.While we know that… More
A beautiful poetic movie from director of Nobody Knows.The ending was the main point of movie,which gave us a deep feeling.It tried to bring up questions such as why we should make life intolerable and instead of loving each other grieve for the ones we have lost.While we know that life is short and soon we are going to die.I should admit the movie was a bit boring and required more material.We feel emotionally affected but at the same time we arent sure if it is a big deal.
Walter M

"Still Walking" is a heartfelt and bittersweet movie about what would be on the surface just a simple family gathering. However, Ryota(Hiroshi Abe) has not seen his parents in years, nor does he call to talk, and is bringing along his wife Yukari(Yui Nutsakawa) and her son… More
"Still Walking" is a heartfelt and bittersweet movie about what would be on the surface just a simple family gathering. However, Ryota(Hiroshi Abe) has not seen his parents in years, nor does he call to talk, and is bringing along his wife Yukari(Yui Nutsakawa) and her son Atsushi(Shohei Tanaka) from her first marriage. Even on the train ride there, he is already planning their exit strategy but Yukari persuades him to spend the night. Ryo's parents(Kirin Kiki & Yoshio Harada) are old fashioned and disapprove of him marrying a widow. That is not the only sign that death hangs over this household, as Ryota's father is 72 and unwillingly retired from his calling as a doctor, even as a neighbor talks to him about being with her when she dies. The eldest son Junpei died young and heroically(his shrine can be seen prominently in several shots), leaving the father with nobody to continue the clinic he worked at all his life, as Ryo did not follow him into the profession and cannot live up to what has been expected of him. Ryo is currently between jobs. He talks about being an art restorer but calls publishers, looking for work. In any case, he cannot afford a car, a status item, to pick up his mother to go shopping. In the end, this is a refreshingly honest and admirably restrained movie about the complex emotions of family dynamics which speaks much to the hypocrisy of civility, the only honesty coming from speaking behind everybody else's backs.(It would have been even better if less had been said between the characters.) Regardless, no matter what is said and not said, one's parents should always be cared for.
Jeff T

Lovingly made, keenly observed, touchingly performed (actually inhabited) this beautiful, tiny gem spends 24 hours with a family and never wastes a second. What emerges is the totally unsurprising but constantly comforting realization that what happens while sitting around the table… More
Lovingly made, keenly observed, touchingly performed (actually inhabited) this beautiful, tiny gem spends 24 hours with a family and never wastes a second. What emerges is the totally unsurprising but constantly comforting realization that what happens while sitting around the table as a grown child is as universal as any feeling that exists. This Japanese family could be my family, it could be yours. Calibrated for perfectly cumulative effect, it only gets better with each passing minute. Wonderful.
Lesley N

Japanese drama by HIROKAZU KOREEDA ( MABOROSI, AFTER LIFE, AIR DOLL). Son and daughter return home to their aging parents for a day to commemorate their dead brother.Beautifully scripted and acted, the film shows the nuances of family life, the niggles, the needs, the discomfort, the… More
Japanese drama by HIROKAZU KOREEDA ( MABOROSI, AFTER LIFE, AIR DOLL). Son and daughter return home to their aging parents for a day to commemorate their dead brother.Beautifully scripted and acted, the film shows the nuances of family life, the niggles, the needs, the discomfort, the secrets, all done so delicately you barely realise a conversation about music is really about some long-past infidelity or why two grown-ups are squabbling about a pair of pyjamas. This had me laughing out loud at times at the truth of it all. For anyone who's ever felt ambivalent about being visiting the folks back home. <img src="http://www.dvdfile.com/images/stories/upl_images/Still%20Walking%20-%20BD/still6.jpg">
Daisy M

The Japanese movie Still Walking, a beautiful family drama, about a son, visiting his parents on the fifteenth anniversary of his brothers death, he drowned while saving another boy. The acting was extremely good as I was used to see in Japanese movies. I think that these actors could… More
The Japanese movie Still Walking, a beautiful family drama, about a son, visiting his parents on the fifteenth anniversary of his brothers death, he drowned while saving another boy. The acting was extremely good as I was used to see in Japanese movies. I think that these actors could have done this movie without a script, so real and so natural they did come over. There was still bitterness, grief and also selfishness ,which was the central subject of the movie.The movie had many emotional surprises,showed with a light touch. It was about family, love and regret and it was like real life story.