Miracle Apples

If you've read the title to this film, you already know everything you need to about it. It has apples. It may have a miracle. The miracle may involve the apples. From that, you'll probably be able to extrapolate that -- like 99% of the other Japanese G-rated dramas, it will be the story of a hapless dreamer with a heart of gold who must overcome every adversity to be able to prove his worth to those around him and to save at least one family member from an illness. There will be tears. There will be innocent children Who Must Be Helped. There will be a beautiful and virtuous woman who will stand by her man. There will be townfolk who don't understand. This sort of film was made by the hundreds in Hollywood in the 1930s through '50s, which makes "Miracle Apples" all the odder, given it being made in 2013.

Yes, I realize that it's (loosely) based upon a true story. But does it have to recycle every hackneyed plot device typical to such movies? Does it have to telegraph every turn of the plot? The protagonist is so earnestly, steadfastly stupid that I found myself enjoying his failure after failure, indignity after indignity. This is partly because star Sadao Abe can be effective in eccentric roles, such as "Ichi the Unicorn" in "Shimotsuma Monogatari" (AKA "Kamikaze Girls"), but he is simply not a believable dramatic actor. His modes are binary; either shouting and nearly wetting himself with enthusiasm or morose and self-flagellating; either way, he's always turned up to eleven.

I give the film three stars for the following: a few good supporting cast members -- particularly Tsutomu Yamazaki as the father-in-law, some fantastic scenery of rural Japan, and a good overall message about organic farming -- but not about a man subjecting his family to a decade of needless poverty, given that organic farming practices were already in use in Europe and America from which he could've learned much, had he bothered to research that.

Certainly the moral of this movie, based, we are told, on a real-life story, is an important one: a man strives against all odds to find a way to grow apples without the use of chemicals or fertilizer. Impossible, he is told. And it seems so, for a long while....

The lessons imparted are certainly vital in this age of industrial agriculture, in the face of the need to eliminate fossil fuels from all aspects of our lives, including how we feed ourselves. And the scenery is another big draw, especially one snow-capped peak in the distance.

Unfortunately the acting is uneven, often veering toward the ludicrous, and several plot twists do not withstand scrutiny.

The book on which the movie is based can be purchased, in Japanese, from Amazon Japan; the author, the real-life Akinori, has a website, akinorikimura.net; and at the latter there is a link to an English language online version of the book, introduced by none other than Yoko Ono.

If you share the belief that we need to return to a more natural, environment-friendly (and for that matter, human-friendly) mode of living, including food production, this movie will be well worth watching, if you can find it in English. If you can't, the book may be a worthy (and certainly less melodramatic) alternative.