[CRITIQUE] MY BIG BROTHER AND ME: the cinema of Ryôta Nakano, between laughter and tears – Baz’art: Films, books…

After making us laugh and moved to tears with The Asada Family, filmmaker Ryôta Nakano took his time and returns by continuing his exploration of family ties with his unique touch, at once tender, burlesque and a little blue flower.

Based on a non-fiction essay by Riko Murai, like all her films, starting with her first feature film in 2012 “Capturing Dad”, it mixes laughter and tears, and once again signs a deeply human, generous, funny and moving film.

 

Behind its funny situations and its benevolent ghosts, My Big Brother and I celebrates reconciliation – not only with the dead, but also with everything we thought we had lost along the way.

 

Working from his own script, Nakano resists maudlin sentimentality. We also see the bad sides of the brother, his heavy drinking and his parental neglect.

My Big Brother and I is certainly a comedy, of mourning and even of ghosts, but emotion gradually blurs this vision, conveyed by a delicacy which blends so well with a sense of the incongruous.

 

 

 

MY BIG BROTHER AND I
Written and directed by Ryôta NAKANO – Japan 2025 2h07mn VOSTF –