Synopsis
After a long and unsuccessful struggle to get pregnant, convinced by the discourse of an adoption association, Satoko and her husband decide to adopt a baby boy. A few years later, their parenthood is shaken by a threatening unknown girl, Hikari, who pretends to be the child's biological mother. Satoko decides to confront Hikari directly.
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Cast
- Hiromi NagasakuSatoko Kurihara
- Arata IuraKiyokazu Kurihara
- Aju MakitaHikari Katakura
- Reo SatouAsato Kurihara
- Miyoko AsadaShizue Asami
- Hiroko NakajimaTakako Katakura
- Tetsu HiraharaMasaru Katakura
- Ren KomaiMisaki Katakura
- Go RijuTakeshi Hamano
- Taketo TanakaTakumi Aso
Recommendations
- 80
Screen Daily
An elegant, absorbing piece of storytelling. - 80
Los Angeles Times
In Kawase’s delicate hands, however, it breathes with an everyday poignancy. - 75
San Francisco Chronicle
Naomi Kawase’s films don’t hammer toward arbitrary plot points but flow like water, so “True Mothers” doesn’t unfold like a Hollywood blockbuster, or indeed, even most arthouse films. It courses along softly and confidently, with unexpected ebbs and estuaries. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
It is, at least in its closing hour, a moving dramatization of maternal feelings. - 67
IndieWire
The film shimmers with beauty and sadness despite its length, and the Japanese director’s background as both a photographer and a documentary filmmaker brings a gossamer naturalism to this realistic tale about a young woman’s regrets over abandoning her child years after the fact. - 67
Austin Chronicle
The longer it goes, the more True Mothers gets weighed down by its melodrama. Kawase is just hopeful and soft enough to keep her film glowing, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing, and is a bit frustrating with its blatant red herrings. - 63
Movie Nation
True Mothers is a melodrama with 90 minutes of story awash in 139 minutes of movie. Kawase holds our interest by letting us see the unexpressed pain of characters generally too well-mannered to express loss, shock, outrage and resentment out loud. - 60
The New York Times
Only a mountain couldn’t be moved by True Mothers — but like Asato’s parentage, the sources of that effect are complex. From one angle, True Mothers is sensitive and layered. From another, the tricks it plays with perspective constitute an all-too-calculated ploy for tears.
