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Liquidity and Stillness: The Sea and Shore and the Furo in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Cinema

Liquidity and Stillness: The Sea and Shore and the Furo in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Cinema This paper focuses on two recurring cinematic spaces of water: the sea and shore and the furo (Japanese bathroom) in the films of the contemporary Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu.1 To develop a somatechnical perspective to address the dynamics between water, bodies and technologies, I deploy the notion of ‘the domestication of water’ (Macauley 2005), denoting the process of how humans make a constant effort to maintain water in a state between liquidity and stillness. This lived interaction between humans and water can illuminate the leitmotif of kinship through the two cinematic spaces. In so doing, I firstly focus on the final shots of the sea and shore from Maborosi (1995) and Our Little Sister (2015). The mise-en-scène of the sea and the shore can create a vision of stillness on the surface but also a sense of liquidity underneath, illustrating that kinship is an ongoing process which can never be shaped but is constantly being re-shaped. Following the flow of water, I then observe the space of the furo in Still Walking (2008) and Like Father, Like Son (2013). By examining two bath routines, co-bathing with children and bathing-in-turn, I argue that the water in furo is by no means in a still state but rather is always circulating between different bodies. The circulation can not only help nurture the parent-child intimacy through co-bathing, but it also enables a theatrical stage on which to convey conflicts of kinship via bathing-in-turn. In conclusion, by further linking the representation of water and kinship in Kore-eda’s cinema, I propose the idea of liquid kinship: a lived process of making rather than a static state of being. The domestication of water between stillness and liquidity epitomises this liquid form of kinship. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Somatechnics Edinburgh University Press

Liquidity and Stillness: The Sea and Shore and the Furo in Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Cinema

Su, Yue
Somatechnics , Volume 13 (2): 18 – Aug 1, 2023
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References (9)

Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
Copyright © Edinburgh University Press
ISSN
2044-0138
eISSN
2044-0146
DOI
10.3366/soma.2023.0401
Publisher site
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Abstract

This paper focuses on two recurring cinematic spaces of water: the sea and shore and the furo (Japanese bathroom) in the films of the contemporary Japanese auteur Kore-eda Hirokazu.1 To develop a somatechnical perspective to address the dynamics between water, bodies and technologies, I deploy the notion of ‘the domestication of water’ (Macauley 2005), denoting the process of how humans make a constant effort to maintain water in a state between liquidity and stillness. This lived interaction between humans and water can illuminate the leitmotif of kinship through the two cinematic spaces. In so doing, I firstly focus on the final shots of the sea and shore from Maborosi (1995) and Our Little Sister (2015). The mise-en-scène of the sea and the shore can create a vision of stillness on the surface but also a sense of liquidity underneath, illustrating that kinship is an ongoing process which can never be shaped but is constantly being re-shaped. Following the flow of water, I then observe the space of the furo in Still Walking (2008) and Like Father, Like Son (2013). By examining two bath routines, co-bathing with children and bathing-in-turn, I argue that the water in furo is by no means in a still state but rather is always circulating between different bodies. The circulation can not only help nurture the parent-child intimacy through co-bathing, but it also enables a theatrical stage on which to convey conflicts of kinship via bathing-in-turn. In conclusion, by further linking the representation of water and kinship in Kore-eda’s cinema, I propose the idea of liquid kinship: a lived process of making rather than a static state of being. The domestication of water between stillness and liquidity epitomises this liquid form of kinship.

Journal

Somatechnics – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Aug 1, 2023

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