ACN Film Review: Aristocrats: Grossly different, they share the struggle

Japanese Film Festival Online 2022 by Japan Foundation, New Delhi

REVIEW by Sunil Kumar & Nikita Yadav 

ARISTOCRATS（あのこは貴族）

NEW DELHI/INDIA: Aristocrats is a book adaptation by the 39 years old director Yukiko Sode basis a serialized novel written by Mariko Yamauchi under the name “Ano Ko wa Kizoku”, and it was published from 2015 to 2016. The story revolves around two main protagonists Hanako Haibara and Miki Tokioka played respectively by Mugi Kadowaki and Kiko Mizuhara. The movie is a subtle mix of romance and drama. But, more importantly, it showcases the increasing gap in the elites and middle class in the earlier centuries and the place and treatment of women in society in general no matter what class you come from.

Aristocrats explores the life of these two middle-class citizens Hanako and Miki who come from completely different backgrounds. Hanako is a wealthy Tokyoite who gets dumped at the age of 27 and Miki comes from the working-class who has made her own choices in life and tries to make a place for herself in the fast-paced world of Japan, Tokyo among the aristocrats.

Hanako being a part of the supremely designed world of the elites lacks the sense of self and the world becomes harder for her when she gets dumped. The race for finding a suitable influential elite match begins for her as this is what she is supposed to be doing according to the class who has taught women to an objectified product who should get married at the proper time and produce an heir rather than focusing on being successful and big. Marriage meetings with potential husband/candidate start for Hanako where she meets Koichiro a charming sweet man who himself is in the trap of the elite society; forced to get married for his parent’s name and status rather than from his own will. Long before they know both the elites are married but what remains uncovered is Koichiro’s status of relationship with a girl from his college time.

IN A SNAPSHOT

GENRE: Drama

CAST: KADOWAKI Mugi , MIZUHARA Kiko , KORA Kengo

DIRECTOR: SODE Yukiko

SCREENPLAY: SODE Yukiko

WRITERS: Yukiko Sode, Mariko Yamauchi (novel)

DIALOGUES: Japanese

SUBTITLES: English

RUNNING TIME: 02hrs 04min (124minutes)

RELEASED: 2021

SCREENING@: Japanese Film Festival Online 2022 (Feb 14-27)

CLASSIFICATION RATING: Parents Guide

Hanako’s and Miki’s worlds collide when our elite protagonist decides to confront the woman with whom his influential husband has all his affection and feelings even when married to Hanako. Miki was a bar hostess and was in the same university as Koichiro but soon she had to drop out because of her father’s condition. Her livings conditions are entirely separate from Hanako’s. So is her personality and life choices.  Miki has bent her life according to self-identity and has tried to make a space for herself between the elites. Hanako’s too who is supposed to be jealous and insecure of Miki due to her history and relationship with her husband seems to be in admiration and has respect for her. She is amazed at how bold and confident Miki is.

 “Although we lived in a different world, we are under the same sky.”

This quote from the movie is something the women of this universe can connect with the most. Even though we all have lived in different worlds and different eras still women are objectified and treated as the second. Koichiro too who himself is in the elite trap gets the space to choose to keep both the women in his life. One he can’t leave due to his family expectation and one due to his own needs and feeling. The treatment of women based on gender is a common sight everywhere, especially in India where the same issues are faced by women. A successful woman who has achieved all is thought to be incomplete if she isn’t married at the right time. Miki too who seems the creator of her own destiny struggles in her life trying to fit in among a certain type. She encounters all the yawing gaps between middle-class upbringing and the elite’s spending behaviours and more. She has to stick to ladders for making her stand up.

The film from the eyes of our two protagonists focuses on class division and gender or social division. Both try to fix or break free of their social class and norms. Hanako learns about the choices she never thought existed from Miki. Both crave freedom but does freedom come from accepting what was taught and what is or is it the courage to move out of this imaginary entitled suffocation?

The title of the movie shows it all; the aristocrats or the elite class live in their own world different from what any working-class person would imagine. Their thought process, choices are all based on this calculated and strategic upbringing they get from the start of their life. However, even after coming from an ultra-privileged society, they lack the identity of self as they are a puppet of the manipulated moves designed by their family or class. The aristocratic society completely dismantles the thought of giving the space to their kids to express their feeling, still, the men in such scenarios get first-class treatment due to the patriarchal nature of the world, and women in this case certainly suffer no matter what they have achieved or how successful they are. The director has done a fabulous job showing the layered truth of society. Aristocrat is a must-watch for all!

 About the Director:

SODE Yukiko (1983, Japan) is a screenwriter and director. She wrote and directed her debut feature, Mime-Mime, in 2008, which premiered at Vancouver International Film Festival. In 2015, she released Good Stripes, her second feature. Aristocrats (2020) is her third feature film.

Filmography:

(selection) Mime-Mime (2008),

Underwear Affair (2010, short)

Guddo Sutoraipusu/Good Stripes (2015),

Ano ko wa kizoku/Aristocrats (2020)

ACN