However...
(Shikashi...Fukushi Kirisute No Jidai Ni)

In this first film made for Fuji TV’s documentary programme, Nonfix, Kore-eda looks at two tragic cases linked to the question of state welfare assistance in Japan and the tightening of the conditions for accessing it: a woman who is victim of an administration that has not recognised her rights, and a government official who is deeply committed to social questions and decides to commit suicide, leaving behind him poems reflecting his malaise. Kore-eda intentionally portrays all the pathetic side of personal tragedies to focus on the public dimension of these two deaths. However, his meeting with the widow of the bureaucrat, Yamanouchi, opens up his work in a sensitive and nuanced way to the theme of mourning. FM