“The Asada family” takes the stage
Inspired by the work of a Japanese photographer, Ryôta Nakano signs a very nice film, a chronicle where benevolence is not a cliché.
Every year, dad Asada gets his two sons drunk to have them pose for a photo, on the occasion of the end of the year greetings, there is no question of escaping the family tradition. A tradition which, in spite of himself, activated the youngest of the sons, Masashi, who later became a photographer and whose style is recognizable by his posed family photos. The photos came to life in the cinema, since Ryôta Nakano tells the story of “The Asada family” in a film (released on January 25), which had been presented in preview at the Rencontres du Cinéma de Gérardmer.
Papa Asada had the good idea to offer his first camera to Masashi, for his twelfth birthday. An object that will defend its vocation, following the whimsical paternal example. As a young man, while he hangs out at home or goes fishing instead of looking for a “real” job, Masashi imagines a basic principle for his future job: his father wanted to be a firefighter, his mother married a yakusa , his Formula 1 driver brother… Masashi stages the dreams of the members of the Asada family who, for the time of a photo, are firefighters, yakusas, pilots, but also fishermen, footballers, restaurateurs, musicians, bikers… Gone to Tokyo with his collection of photos, he will make a book, an exhibition, of what is much more than a family album, instantaneous a remarkable price, and makes on request portraits of other families, in the situation of their choice.
The restitution of a moment of life
After the tsunami in 2011, the photographer went to the scene of the disaster, but he put down his camera and joined volunteers. Their mission, “save” family albums, thousands of photos found in the ruins of gutted, destroyed houses, clean them, remove the mud, classify them, and display them in order to return them to their owners or loved ones. Proceed to a restitution, which is the very principle of a cliché, the restitution of a moment of life, where a banal holiday image, a traditional class photo, an innocuous snapshot, are more than “sacred memories” , traces of men, women, children, now disappeared.
At first amusing, entertaining, with this whimsical, endearing “Asada Family”, which lends itself to play, it’s a very nice film, where the photo reveals “the joy of being together”. It is then a fixer for eternity in a more serious second part, an evocation of all the importance of photos in the history of families, their power, memorial, sentimental, which is not a cliché. Ryôta Nakano’s film is thus a benevolent, comforting chronicle that achieves its objective: to do good.
Patrick Tardit
“The Asada Family”, a film by Ryôta Nakano (released on January 25).