A Pale View of Hills

This quietly heartbreaking adaptation of Nobel Prize laureate Kazuo Ishiguro’s debut novel alternates between 1950s Japan and 1980s England to survey the long shadows of war on the lives of survivors. Featuring exquisite performances from Suzu Hirose and Yoh Yoshida, who play the same woman at different points in her life, the latest from writer-director Kei Ishikawa (A Man) is a sensitive evocation of healing across generations.

Nagasaki, 1952. Etsuko (Hirose) has given up a promising career in music to become a housewife and is now pregnant with her first child. Feeling lonely, Etsuko befriends the stylish Sachiko (Fumi Nikaido, TIFF ’13’s Why Don’t You Play in Hell?) who is ostracized for being a single mother and for dating an American soldier. The two women learn that they share the scars of the atomic bomb. For Etsuko, Sachiko represents a very different vision of life, one riskier but promising freedom and possibility.

When we meet the older Etsuko (Yoshida) in 1980s England, her life has changed radically. The past 30 years brought a second marriage, emigration, and personal tragedy. Etsuko’s daughter Niki (Camilla Aiko), an aspiring journalist, seeks to understand her mother’s turbulent past, although Etsuko may not be the most reliable narrator of her own life.

Gorgeously photographed and beautifully nuanced, A Pale View of Hills conveys a deep understanding of Ishiguro’s recurring exploration of the profound and lasting effects of the ravages of war — and, in doing so, tenderly illuminates the durability of the human heart.

ANITA LEE

Content advisory: references to suicide