A Hundred Flowers
Japanese film producer and writer Genki Kawamura makes his directorial debut with this intimate drama about dementia. Winner of the Silver Shell for best director in San Sebastian.
On New Year’s Eve, Izumi finds his mother Yuriko wandering in a park in the freezing cold. Diagnosed with dementia, her mind quickly begins to fade. Yet, for her son, memories of the mother who raised him on her own feel as vivid as when he lived them. One in particular, when he believed she had disappeared, haunts him terribly. As Yuriko slips slowly into oblivion, Izumi must come to terms with losing his mother again, this time forever. But on his path to acceptance, he uncovers Yuriko’s secrets and who she truly was.
In A HUNDRED FLOWERS, director Genki Kawamura explores the nature of human memories. Whereas films about dementia are often told from the perspective of family members, Kawamura also tries to show us how dementia is experienced by the patient, similar to what Florian Zeller did in THE FATHER.