Rakuen

The film, The Promised Land or Rakuen, concerns three characters, who were in the vicinity of a fork in the road from where a young girl disappears, the only trace found of her, is her backpack. The first is Takeshi, a lonely young man traumatized by the bullying and violence he and his non-Japanese mother have endured from the locals. Suspicion falls on Takeshi, but Takeshi's mother provides him with a solid alibi. One of his few allies was the grandfather of the disappeared girl, but he turns against him. Twelve years later, a girl disappears near the same fork in the road. Takeshi freaks out calamitously, when he realizes he is a suspect in the recent disappearance. Zenjiro, a middle-aged beekeeper, lives peacefully with his pet dog near the forked road, while trying to cope with his wife's death. A year after the second disappearance occurred, he plans business to revitalize the town, although he not originally from the locality. As a consequence he is shunned by the local people and falls into depression, which leads to violence. Finally there is the flutist Tsumugi (Hana Sugisaki), who was with the first young girl just before her disappearance and is deeply hurt by the event. The two men interact with the attractive Tsumugi, thus she provides the thread that ties the stories together, and after moving away to the city following the second incident, she dutifully returns to her 'paradisiacal' hometown. Through its course, this ironically-named film addresses the decline of rural Japan and the traditional rural ostracism of outsiders, be they Japanese or not. Confusingly there are many shifts back and forth in time, and it's sometimes difficult to empathise with the two weird men, however the viewer should have no trouble persisting to see if things will turn out well for the enigmatic Tsumugi.

"Rakuen" is a movie that shows three people who are looking for paradise. Takeshi, the son of a refugee, is a person who says that there is no paradise, and Zanjiro, a beekeeper, is a person who thinks only a moment in the past is a paradise. And the main character, Tsumugi, is deeply involved in the incident between the two men and begins to find a way to paradise as she grows up.

One of the themes that appears frequently in Japanese films is the mechanism of the scapegoat, and this problem appears as the main theme in this film as well. The method of solving community problems by creating a scapegoat gives members the illusion that the problem has been solved, But in the end, the method itself was the seed of all the tragedy in this village.

The great thing about this film is that while it deals with the above-mentioned themes, it does not miss sight of the small sins of individuals and their sense of guilt. All the characters are somehow involved in the tragedy that has occurred in the village due to their own circumstances, and are engulfed in the guilt from it. However, it is a natural destiny for humans, and movie shows the process of breaking free from such guilt by the protagonist, Tsumugi. And it shows naturally that it is the way to paradise.

The visuals of the film are truly amazing. In the movie, the village holds a fire festival, and the majestic fire of the festival is a catalyst that reminds us many things (arson incident, longing, guilty, fear, hate, etc). In addition, the long take scene down the rice fields in a village are also excellent scenes that make you feel the scorching sun of the countryside.

It was a outstanding movie in which the difficult theme of "Where is Paradise" was successfully solved by using limited space of a rural village.