“Pale Light on the Hills”, “Dog 51”… 3 novels adapted for cinema

1. “Pale Light on the Hills,” by Kei Ishikawa

Drama, 2:03 a.m. In theaters.

In 1982, Niki, a young British man of Japanese origin, visited his mother, Etsuko. She wants to write an article based on her memories of the immediate post-war period in Nagasaki.

At first reluctant, Etsuko ends up recounting her first marriage, the difficult reconstruction of people in a guilty but wounded Japan, the joy of a pregnancy, the friendship with a young neighbor, Sashiko, and her little daughter, Mariko…

But over the course of the interviews, Niki understands that her mother embroiders on her memories and eludes a lot. Between them also hovers the mourning of Niki’s older sister. This remarkable adaptation of the first novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, Nobel Prize winner for literature, preserves on screen all the ambiguity and melancholic poetry of the book.

The flashbacks to Japan are composed like sumptuous paintings in a more dramatic palette at certain moments. A subtle and intriguing film about guilt, war trauma, mother-daughter relationships, but also, implicitly, the yoke of traditions in Japan.

Sophie Laurant

Our opinion: PPP