Harmonium

2016 2h 0m JA

👍

6.5

SOLID

★6.5TMDB · 103

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Toshio hires Yasaka to work in his workshop. But then this old acquaintance, who has just been released from prison, begins to meddle in Toshio's family life.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Tadanobu Asano
Sotaro Yasaka
Mariko Tsutsui
Akie Suzuoka
Taiga Nakano
Takashi Yamagami
Momone Shinokawa
Hotaru Suzuoka
Kana Mahiro
Hotaru Suzuoka (Adult)
Kanji Furutachi
Toshio Suzuoka
Takahiro Miura
Atsushi Shitara
Kenichi Akiyama

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Koji Fukada
Writers: Koji Fukada
Languages: Japanese
Countries: France, Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Released 10 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: France, Japan.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Koji Fukada, shot by Kenichi Negishi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Hiroyuki Onogawa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Julia Grégory shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

CAST

Did you know

Tadanobu Asano and Mariko Tsutsui and Taiga Nakano carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt5182856 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Koji Fukada directs. Kenichi Negishi behind the camera. Hiroyuki Onogawa scores. Julia Grégory cuts. Produced in France, Japan. Dialogue in Japanese.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 10 years ago.
2International production across 2 countries: France, Japan.
3Directed by Koji Fukada, shot by Kenichi Negishi. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Hiroyuki Onogawa. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Julia Grégory shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Tadanobu Asano and Mariko Tsutsui and Taiga Nakano carry the top of the cast.
7IMDB entry: tt5182856 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography: Kenichi Negishi
Original score: Hiroyuki Onogawa
Editing: Julia Grégory
Runtime: 120 min · 2h 0m
Status: Released
Original language: JA
IMDB: Harmonium (2016)

Awards

Un certain regard Award

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Koji Fukada

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

sitenoise2017-09-01
This is the second film Kôji Fukada has made about a stranger insinuating himself into a seemingly calm family. The stranger first starts working for the family in their home business, then he moves in to their home, and then ties between the stranger and the family are revealed and exploited. Kanji Furutachi played the stranger in the first one, Hospitalité. He plays the family man in this one. I like this one better. Any time one of a character's introductory scenes consists of bad eating-acting you have the most simplistic of character definitions: the character is an idiot, with a bad moon rising. Both the family man and the stranger are introduced this way. They both turn out bad. No surprise. The first act of this film is full of bad indie nonsense, but after the lame setup material is out of the way, including Asano's snorefest of a background story speech that sets things in motion, the film finds it rhythm. And it's frighteningly good. And only then does it become unpredictable. There's a character swap about halfway through, and trying to figure out the relationship and motivations really put me on edge. The second half of the film is walking on razor blades. Asano has pretty much jumped the shark, imo. He's played this character a hundred times. I don't think he does anything special here, but he's not bad. Kanji Furutachi is a good creep. In the first act he tries to act like a creep and fails. In the second half he becomes a creep and is awesome. But the star of this film is Mariko Tsutsui as the wife. Her face is hard-coded for WTF sadness. She does the Japanese thing of remaining calm in the face of super-WTF-ness, wonderfully. There are several big moments, impact moments, in the film where if I were her my head would have exploded. I had no idea how she would react. She's fantastic. The opposite of acting. She looks like she's processing the information given to her for the first time--not like she's acting the part of processing information. Bravo! When you see what happens to the kid it's funny, sad, super weird and then some. It remains understated which doubles the funny, sad, super weird and then some of it. I have no idea what the ending says. It felt abstract and lame but didn't spoil things for me. I highly recommend the film to those who aren't bothered by bad eating-acting, or may not notice bad indie cliché scenes, and to those who are forgiving of bad script writing and acting during a film's setup phase.

Production companies