From the director of Au Revoir L’Ete and Hospitalité, Kôji Fukada’s ‘Harmonium’ is an off-kilter take on that most venerable of Japanese genres — the family drama. It was awarded the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes 2016. Toshio offers old friend and ex-con Yasaka a place to stay and a job in his small workshop. Toshio’s wife, Akie and daughter, Hotaru are wary of their new lodger, but with his persistent charm and goodwill, Yasaka befriends them. When Yasaka starts teaching Hotaru to play the harmonium, the family’s fragile domestic bliss is forever altered. So begins Kôji Fukada’s intelligent, increasingly tense, and brilliantly acted deconstruction of family dynamics.
