News & Reports

Light of intricate patterns

Dir. Shoji Yasui

Tokyo Metropiltan Government & SSFF&Asia Co-production

Reviewed by Laura MacGregor

Like his previous festiSSFF&Asival offering (Sweet, SSFF&Asia 2023), in Light of intricate patterns, Shoji Yasui tells a simplistic story of mother-child bonding after the mothers erase their assumptions about how their children should be and see them as they are. The film is mostly shot in sparkly backlit sunshine, visually underscoring the  Edo Kiriko glass craft tradition that is introduced.

The mother’s job as a journalist, takes her to an Edo Kiriko craftsman’s workshop where we see him at work, deftly carving intricate patterns into glassware.

The biggest takeaway from this film is a glimpse at this traditional craft that stimulates our interest in finding out more about it. And perhaps an urge to visit Tokyo Skytree, which appears from time to time throughout the film and ends the film, sparkling in the night sky.

Edo Kiriko was designated as a traditional craft by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 1985 and by the national government in 2002. Numerous craftsmen have received honors for their work.

https://shortshorts.org/tokyo_project/sustainable_recovery/

＜WRITER＞

Laura MacGregor is on faculty at Gakushuin University. Among the courses she teaches is one on film and the economy. She has been in Japan for a long time, and has been watching and studying about films and the film industry since the 1990s. SSFF & ASIA is one of her favourite film festivals in Japan so she is glad to participate this year as a volunteer translator and reviewer.