Maborosi
title: "Maborosi" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1995-films", "1995-drama-films", "1990s-japanese-language-films", "japanese-drama-films", "films-directed-by-hirokazu-kore-eda", "films-about-suicide", "films-set-in-ishikawa-prefecture", "1995-japanese-films", "japanese-language-drama-films", "films-that-won-the-golden-osella"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maborosi" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::data[format=table title="Infobox film"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Maboroshi |
| image | Maborosi.jpg |
| director | Hirokazu Kore-eda |
| producer | Naoe Gozu |
| screenplay | Yoshihisa Ogita |
| based_on | |
| starring | Makiko Esumi |
| Tadanobu Asano | |
| Akira Emoto | |
| Sayaka Yoshino | |
| Takashi Naito | |
| music | Chen Ming-chang |
| cinematography | Masao Nakabori |
| editing | Tomoyo Ōshima |
| distributor | Milestone Films |
| released | |
| runtime | 109 minutes |
| country | Japan |
| language | Japanese |
| :: |
|name = Maboroshi |image = Maborosi.jpg |director = Hirokazu Kore-eda |producer = Naoe Gozu |screenplay = Yoshihisa Ogita |based_on = |starring = Makiko Esumi Tadanobu Asano Akira Emoto Sayaka Yoshino Takashi Naito |music = Chen Ming-chang |cinematography = Masao Nakabori |editing = Tomoyo Ōshima |distributor = Milestone Films |released = |runtime = 109 minutes |country = Japan |language = Japanese Maborosi, known in Japan as Maboroshi no Hikari, is a 1995 Japanese drama film by director Hirokazu Kore-eda starring Makiko Esumi, Tadanobu Asano, and Takashi Naito. It is based on a novel by Teru Miyamoto.
Maborosi won a Golden Osella Award for Best Cinematography at the 1995 Venice Film Festival.
Plot
Yumiko (Esumi) and Ikuo (Asano) are a young Osaka couple who have a new baby. One day Ikuo is walking along the railway tracks and is hit and killed by a train. It seems that he may have done this deliberately yet there is no apparent motive. A few years pass. Yumiko agrees to an arranged marriage with a widower, Tamio (Naitō), and she and Yuichi (her son, now played by Gohki Kashiyama) move to Tamio's house in a rustic village on the Sea of Japan coast.
A drunken spat over a bell Yumiko had given Ikuo just before he died causes Yumiko and Tamio to discuss their strong emotions for their lost loves. Shortly after, Yumiko follows a funeral procession and lingers at the crematorium, until Tamio arrives by car to pick her up, at which point she says she just wants to know why Ikuo killed himself. Tamio suggests that, like the will o' the wisps his father used to see, perhaps something just drew him away from life.
Cast
- Makiko Esumi as Yumiko
- as Tamio
- Tadanobu Asano as Ikuo
- Gohki Kashiyama as Yuichi
- Naomi Watanabe as Tomoko
- Midori Kiuchi as Michiko
- Akira Emoto as Yoshihiro
- Mutsuko Sakura as Tomeno
- as Master
- as Hatsuko
- Ren Osugi as Hiroshi, Yumiko's father
- as Kiyo
- Sayaka Yoshino as young Yumiko
- Minori Terada as Detective
- Shuichi Harada as Cop
- Takashi Inoue as Driver
Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, Maborosi has a perfect approval rating of based on reviews, with an average score of . On Metacritic, the film is scored 92 out of a 100, based on 8 reviews. It garnered a positive reaction from critics upon its American release, and received two thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert on the April 12, 1997 episode of their program. Ebert further praised the film in his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, noting its "astonishing beauty and sadness" and the influence of Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu. It was later included on Siskel and Ebert's "Best Films of 1997" episode in January 1998.
References
Bibliography
References
- "Maborosi".
- "Metaborosi". [[CBS Interactive]].
- (12 April 1997). "Anaconda/Grosse Point Blank/Paradise Road/Keys to Tulsa/Kissed/Mabarosi". Buena Vista Television.
- Ebert, Roger. (1997-03-21). "Maborosi".
- (17 January 1998). "The Best Films of 1997". Buena Vista Television.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::