Director Shûichi Okita
Staring Yûdai Chiba, Akira Emoto, Atsuko Maeda
Recommended for ages 12+
Score 5/6

Metal-head Eikichi leaves his struggling music career to return to his family in a small island village off the coast of Shikoku. Sporting a mohawk, he comes home for the first time in seven years to introduce his clueless Tokyoite girlfriend to his family. In the process, Eikichi also announces that they’re expecting a child. The news leaves Osamu, Eikichi’s dad, livid with anger. However, he’s secretly delighted and immediately invites the townspeople to celebrate his son’s homecoming and surprise engagement. Merrymaking soon turns into tragedy as Osamu is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. The events that follow are a blend of hilarity and tragedy as Osamu comes to terms with his condition, and the father and son patch up old wounds through a shared love for music.

For those of you who are interested, this is the closing film for the Japanese Film Festival in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, and Perth.

I liked this, I’d like to think that I would buy it if I ever saw it for sale. The Mohican Comes Homes is a very heartfelt movie; I was smiling when the credits rolled. Part of me would not have been surprised if the overall tone of the movie had of gone a little more slapstick than it did but I was glad to see that the movie maintained its dignity though still managing to deliver up a couple of laughs.
This sort of reminded me of an Australian movie from 2011 directed by Gale Edwards A Heartbeat Away, this made me appreciate the relationship between Eikichi and his father just a little bit more because it’s kind of comforting to think that no matter how differences there are between the people of the world if you look closely enough there are some similarities to.