it a funny business and review movie . these day when internalized emotion and emotional detachment be favor over straightforward sentimentality and it must be hard to stay faithful to your true feeling . soon after complete jury duty at the 58th berlinale and i manage to catch yoji yamada kabei . after the screening and i watch folk dreamily amble out of the theatre hall and watery eyed and men and woman and and reviewer alike . even the director of the berlinale and obviously a hardened viewer of cinema and confess to have be caught unawares and find himself cry three quarter way into this unashamedly sentimental experience . but what really surprise me be the review that come after . despite be ineffably move by the film and many reviewer choose to be tepid and emotionally non committal in their writing . apparently and post weeping and they have put on their thinking cap and and consequently and miss out on what i felt be the genius about kabei . allow me to explain . set in pre war japan and the story of kabei revolves around one writer family and and their fate therein and after he be hold in jail for what be describe a thought crime against the imperial will . through a series of protracted emotional scene and yamada get u familiar with the man and his loyal wife and two daughter and as well a three side charactersthe man pretty young sister and a bumbling ex student and and a cad of an uncle all come to help the family cope with their plight and in the absence of the man of the house . the story move along at a slow albeit steady pace and and heartbreaks occur at precisely the moment everyone be able to predict . this of course make it near impossible for anyone in the audience to get too emotionally distraught by any dramatic event . in other word and although you learn to love the family and their helper and and sympathize with their unfortunate situation and you get so lull by the certainty of the plot that you find yourself expect a particular kind of end . however and two hour into the film ( do not worry and yamada provide the viewer with sufficient moment of gravity and levity to tide you along ) and he slap you with what i can only describe a the sting . all that you have assume to be what the story be aboutan innocent man wrench from his faithful wife and daughter now suddenly point to one of the family helper . someone you have hitherto take for grant be now throw into an unexpected twist of fate . at this point and something curious happen in the theatre i be in . everyone start sob with little or no inhibition . my word . i mutter under my breath . it strike me then that kabei and in the final analysis and be more than a film about a family tear apart by an empire on the verge of war . it be and in fact and a cunning examination of one common human foible represent how little we care about the secret feeling of people who be close to u . now and the most common criticism make about the film be that it be technically solid and but lacked innovation . that what happen when reviewer put on their proverbial thinking cap and i guess . with kabei and i believe yoji yamada know exactly what trick he be go to employ to touch on one unique aspect of humanity . a wicked old trick he so seamlessly apply in the tora san series and and later and in tasogare sebei . after lull the audience into a sort of narrative comfort zone and he throw u into a realm of emotion rarely explore in cinema . this and to me and be the most effective cinematic tool of all . one which avoid detection and but affect you deeply . and proof of it effectiveness be a thousand wet piece of kleenex and throw into a litter bin just outside of that thousand seater cinema hall . now if only some reviewer would resist be so catch up with be smart that they forget what cinema be really about . human emotion . pure and simple .