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Harmonium Essay

Decent Essays

Koji Fukada's "Harmonium" examines the consequences of the past in the most extreme fashion A seemingly regular family gets an unexpected visitor The Suzuokas are a seemingly regular family of the three, living in the suburbs. The husband, Toshio, runs a small metalworking industry in the basement of the house they live in. His wife, Fumie is a homemaker and their little daughter, Hotaru goes to the elementary school and takes harmonium lessons. However, when Kusataro Yasaka, an old acquaintance of Kanji arrives unexpectedly to their house, after he is released from prison, everything changes. Kanji seems to have a past life that Mariko did not know of, and a secret he shares with Kusataro that makes him invite him to stay at their house. Mariko is infuriated in the beginning, but as time passes and Kusataro reveals the reasons he went to prison, he takes a liking to him. The same applies to Hotaru, as Kusataro also knows how to play the harmonium and begins teaching her. Eventually, he and Fumie start becoming more than friends, in an act that has terrible repercussions for everybody. The film then takes a leap forward, some years after the incident The underlying …show more content…

However, it eventually erupts from all of them. In that fashion, Toshio is tormented by his past and Kusataro's presence only makes the sentiment worse. His eruption though comes very later, after the horrific event, in the form of a slap. Mariko is sexually repressed and her eruption comes when she starts having feelings for Kusataro. He is actually infuriated and jealous by the fact that he went to prison and Toshio stayed behind, managing to have a business and a family. His first eruption comes when all together take a trip to the river, but he manages to contain it. The second one though is horrific, in an act that makes the tension even more intense in the second

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