Great Absence (2023) by Kei Chika-ura: Memory’s Fragile Return

Short Summary: A Return to a Strained Silence

Takashi, an actor distant from his father for nearly 25 years, returns to his hometown upon learning Yohji—a retired university professor—is slipping into dementia. Accompanied by his wife Yuki, he discovers that his father’s second wife, Naomi, has vanished. As Takashi unravels the mystery, he confronts the emotional emptiness between them and the fragile boundaries between memory and identity.

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28568332/

Link Review: https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/great-absence-review-1235741729/

Link to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/great-absence (US), https://www.justwatch.com/ca/movie/great-absence (Canada)

Detailed Summary: Echoes of Time

• Disrupted DistanceA police call brings Takashi to his father’s isolated home, where disorientation and confusion reign. The father’s alarm was nothing more than the result of failing faculties—his sense of the world slipping away.

• Temporal PuzzleThe film alternates between fragmented memories and present reality. Takashi discovers journals, love letters, and relics of the past—Naomi’s diary pages, his father’s speech notes—creating a mosaic of family history and regrets.

• Complex RelationshipsNaomi, the woman Yohji left Takashi’s mother for decades before, appears only through memories and documents. Their subdued tension, what remains unsaid, carries more emotional weight than any overt confrontation.

• Symbolic MomentsEvery detail—from a broken belt revealing youthful vulnerability, to Takashi’s discovery of duplicate microphones at home—serves as a metaphor for memory’s unraveling and the surreal quality of forgotten familiarity.

• Emotional CrescendosTakashi’s emotional journey crescendos when he reads words in Naomi’s voice, hears his father’s apology, and finally confronts whether forgiveness is automatic—or earned.

Director’s Vision: Structuring Memory Like Mosaic

• Nonlinear ResonanceThe fragmented structure reflects dementia's disruption—memory and reality blur. The audience, like Takashi, pieces together the story even as chronology scatters.

• Personal But FictionalInspired by Chika‑ura’s experience with his own father’s dementia during the pandemic, the film presents a fictional story rooted in emotional truth.

• Tactile CinemaShot on 35 mm film with a dedicated soundscape, it lingers on textures—skin, fabric, paper—creating a sensory empathy for memory’s fragility.

• Construction of AmbiguityCertain scenes—like the apology—are intentionally ambiguous: Is it remorse? A plea? The ambiguity resists easy closure, mirroring life’s irresolvable complexity.

Themes: Memory, Legacy, and Unspoken Love

• Estrangement and ForgivenessThe film asks whether absence dissolves love, or simply disguises it—and whether anger can yield to connection before memory dissolves.

• Time as Betrayer and HealerTime steals identity yet also uncovers long-buried emotions. The past haunts the present, but reconciliation may still be possible in the gaps.

• Human Dignity in DeclineYohji’s neat clothing and careful speech, even in decline, assert his dignity and identity despite fading memory.

Key Success Factors: Why It Resonates

• Stunning PerformancesTatsuya Fuji—awarded Best Actor at San Sebastián—imbues Yohji with both authority and confusion. Mirai Moriyama as Takashi grounds the film with quiet emotional depth.

• Formal ConfidenceChika‑ura’s structure is deliberate: dislocation, discovery, and emotional release align with the film’s thematic core.

• Sensory RealismThe use of 35 mm and meticulous sound design adds sensory grounding—memories feel tangible, the present unbearably acute.

Awards & Nominations: Festival Acclaim

The film premiered at TIFF 2023, played at San Sebastián (where Fuji won Best Actor), and screened at festivals from San Francisco to Osaka. It later opened theatrically in Japan in mid‑2024, with international releases following in Spain and South Korea. 

Critics Reception: Memory in Poetic Mosaic

• International Cinephile Society (TIFF review): Praises its meditative quality and humanistic approach to dementia, calling it "candor, realism, and remorse" in every scene. 

• Roxie Theater (SFFilm): Applauds its elegant structure and emotional grace, calling it "a moving drama… structured quite magnificently." 

• Festival Forums (Japan Cuts): Highlights its depiction of dementia as so “deft it gets under your skin,” creating disorientation akin to the film’s subject. 

Overall Summary: Critics admire its formal maturity, emotional authenticity, and the delicate portrayal of dementia and estrangement. While long, the film’s immersive structure is praised as both intentional and impactful.

Reviews: Views from the Viewers

• Letterboxd Audiences:

  • “Elegant, powerful, deeply moving”—praising visual beauty and emotional resonance.

  • Some echo concerns about pacing, calling it “meandering” or “too long,” though many feel the length adds to thematic weight. 

Summary: Viewers are emotionally affected—either captivated by its subtlety or challenged by its pacing, but almost universally struck by its authenticity.

Why to Recommend Movie: Humanism in Fragmented Memory

• Emotion Without Melodrama: Transforms dementia into a narrative of grace—and estrangement into gentle discovery.

• Technical Poignancy: Fine grain film and layered sound echo memory’s texture.

• Performances that Echo: Actors embody recognition, regret, and love through fleeting gestures.

• A Story for Many: Family, loss, memory—universal yet rarely portrayed with such nuance.

Movie Trend: Dementia as Drama, Not Melodrama

Great Absence fits within a wave of sober, subtle explorations of dementia—distinguished by its external perspective, narrative fragmentation, and formal elegance, diverging from more sensational or subjective portrayals.

Social Trend: Aging, Memory, and Connection

As dementia becomes increasingly prevalent in global aging populations, the film resonates with growing cultural urgency to reexamine memory loss—not just medically, but through emotional, familial landscapes.

Final Verdict: A Quiet Masterpiece

Great Absence is a poignant cinematic exploration of memory, forgiveness, and familial absence. Kei Chika-ura’s direction, poetic structure, and Tatsuya Fuji’s devastating performance coalesce into a film that carries the emotional weight of absence—and the fragile, aching possibility of return. Thoughtful, sensory, and deeply humane, it’s a viewing experience that lingers long after the credits fade.