Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

After the Storm Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 26, 2018

Note: This version of the film is available as part of Family Values: Three Films by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

The good folks at Arrow Video and/or Arrow Academy may be thanking their lucky stars that Hirokazu Kore-eda has just been feted with the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Festival (for Shoplifters), an award that may raise the profile of their so-called Family Values set of three Kore-eda films from the past several years. The timing for Kore-eda's award may seem especially fortuitous since this set, while not brand new, seems to be a repackaging (with some additional non-disc swag like a rather nicely done booklet) of three standalone releases that Arrow brought out not all that long ago (I Wish, Like Father, Like Son, After the Storm). As is discussed in some of the supplements included on this release, Kore-eda’s long history in Japan’s television industry tends to give his feature films a smaller scale, more intimate ambience, and it probably can’t be denied that at least some plot points in the three films in this set might be perfectly at home in what might be termed a “Lifetime Channel Very Special Film Made for Television” category. That said, Kore-eda is a remarkably facile director with children, and all three films explore a kind of childlike perspective that in some ways tended to remind me of the work of Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird, The Other), at least in terms of Mulligan’s ability to capture an honest depiction of how kids see the world around them, if not in any pure content way. All three films delve into family dysfunctions in sometimes visceral ways, though often in an emotionally tamped down ambience that seems to be perfectly Japanese, where deep emotions are masked out what may be a fear that some kind of “communal” peace (however illusory) might be disturbed.

Of the three films in the Family Values set, After the Storm is arguably the most “adult” oriented, though the same kind of general family dysfunctions and dynamics that inform both I Wish and Like Father, Like Son are certainly present in this film as well. While there is a fractured marriage and father - son relationship underlying After the Storm, this film tends to focus more centrally on the adult Ryota (Hiroshi Abe), a troubled man forced to hunker down with his mother Yoshiko (Kirin Kiki), estranged wife Kyoko (Yoko Maki) and young son Shingo (Taiyo Yoshizawa) when a typhoon hits the area. Adding to the roiling emotional atmosphere is Ryota’s relationship with his sister Chinatsu (Satomi Kobayashi), one filled with suspicions and distrust on the part of both siblings.

There’s some perhaps needless tangential information here regarding Ryota, especially with the somewhat unusual fact that he’s both an author and a private detective, though references to his out of control gambling habit at least support the film’s depiction of an erstwhile husband and father not able to financially support what was once his family. The film traffics in a number of interpersonal issues which under a more florid director’s hand could have easily wallowed in melodrama, but even with emotions more on the surface than they arguably are (at least at times) in the two other films in this set, Kore-eda presents a remarkably even keeled account of a family trying, and maybe not quite succeeding, to forge a new way forward.

That “almost, but no cigar” feeling tends to give After the Storm an undeniable melancholic ambience, one also fraught with an almost Romantic Poet relationship between an interior emotional state and an exterior physical phenomenon like the weather. The film is anchored by a really impressive performance by Abe as a perhaps unavoidably unsympathetic character (at least in some ways), but the supporting cast here all do excellent work in a film that requires a lot of cloistered interchanges with tons of subtext.

After the Storm Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

All three films in the Family Values set are presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Academy with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.85:1. I have to say I was genuinely surprised to not find any information about the transfers in any of the material accompanying this release, a first (or at least what I'm recalling as a first) for an Arrow release. I even looked at the back covers of the previously released standalone versions (linked to above in the first paragraph of the review), and kind of interestingly, none of those seemed to have any information about the transfers on them, either. With that said, all three of these films share certain similarities (including the fact that all were shot on 35mm and finished at 2K DIs, according to the IMDb), so I'll speak in generalities before moving on to each film in particular.

From a damage or age related issue perspective, these are absolutely flawless transfers, no doubt due at least in part to their relatively recent vintage. Fine grain also looks natural on all three transfers for the most part (exceptions are noted below). My one slight qualm with all three of these is that they look just slightly bright at times to my eyes, something that tends to make contrast a bit anemic, especially in what are already more brightly lit moments. That said, palettes, while not especially vivid in any of the three films, look decently saturated, though as I'll discuss in the following individual comments, things can look a bit odd at times in terms of a "natural" appearance.

After the Storm has the coolest looking palette of the three films in the Family Values set, and it also has a somewhat odd looking brown-green undertone at times, something that (as in selected moments of the other films) tends to skew things like flesh tones toward slightly weird looking territory. There's a certain haziness that is apparent in several darker scenes as well, notably some that take place in cars at night, where blacks are on the milky side and contrast could be improved. That said, the grain field on this presentation never clumps in the same way that is seen on occasion in Like Father, Like Son. Detail levels are generally quite good as well, elevated by Kore-eda's frequent use of close-ups.

After the Storm Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

All three of the films in this set offer either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 tracks. The LPCM 2.0 tracks on both Like Father, Like Son and After the Storm sounded like they had slightly heftier amplitude than their respective surround tracks, something that I Wish didn't. All three films feature rather winning scores, with I Wish offering both guitars (an allusion to the kids' rock star wannabe Dad, I'm assuming) as well as some really breezy "Stephane Grappelli"-esque violin cues. Like Father, Like Son has some very sweet solo piano, again alluding to some father-son activities. After the Storm has a more pop oriented score. The surround tracks on all three films benefit from good placement of ambient environmental sounds, and dialogue on all three films comes through very cleanly and clearly.

After the Storm Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Family Ties Part III (HD; 15:35) ties up (see what I did there?) Jasper Sharp's interview of Kore-eda conducted at the 2016 London Film Festival sponsored by the BFI. Here Kore-eda talks about After the Storm (though he gets into the two others in this set at least passingly).


• The Making of After the Storm (HD; 1:13:08) features a lot of behind the scenes footage narrated by Taiyo Yoshizawa.


• Roll Numbers (HD; 5:22) features clapper takes with the cast and crew set to the film's theme song.


• The Making of the Theme Song Music Video (HD; 7:51) has a lot of fun behind the scenes footage.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 1:40)

Additionally, the box set contains a beautifully done insert booklet (almost a pamphlet, really) with stills and writing on all three films. Also, just a note about the supplements on all three films: while all of them are ostensibly high definition, at least some of them show signs of upscaling.

After the Storm Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

After the Storm was a bit on the soap operatic side for my personal tastes, and it also included what I personally felt was extraneous, unneeded background material dealing with Ryota. That said, as with the two other films in this set, the performances are excellent and the interplay between father and son quite remarkable. The underlying melancholy of this film is palpable, a testament to Kore-eda's authenticity and facility with intimate stories. Recommended.