One of the leading voices in the new Japanese cinema, Shinji Aoyama directs this saga about memory, grief, and redemption. Shot in stark black and white, the film opens with the sudden and inexplicably bloody hijacking of a bus in rural Kyushu. The crazed gunman (Riju Go) shoots two passengers in the back as they try to flee. Stepping out of the bus for some fresh air, the hijacker drags bus driver Makoto (played by the ubiquitous Koji Yakusho) along for cover. When the driver faints and falls to the ground, police snipers shoot the terrorist. In his last dying effort, the hijacker stumbles back on board the bus, where he murders an old lady and tries to kill a pair of shocked schoolchildren, Naoki (Masaru Miyazaki) and Kozue (Aoi Miyazaki). Two years later, the experience has wreaked havoc on the lives of the three sole survivors. Distanced and easily distracted, Makoto's weird behavior -- particularly his habit of wandering off unannounced for days at a time -- finally takes its toll on his marriage. Meanwhile, Naoki and Kozue are left mute from the event, though they can communicate. The silent siblings' mother soon walks out of her marriage, and their father kills himself in a car wreck, leaving them alone in a large house with a substantial insurance check. Having found work at a construction company, Makoto's strange behavior starts to raise a few eyebrows, especially when he utterly ignores the advances of a comely office worker. Soon the village is rocked by news of murdered women washing up on a nearby river bank; Makoto's brother suspects him and asks him to leave their family house. He shows up on the doorstep of Naoki and Kozue's house, which has devolved into utter disrepair, and the trio forms a family of sorts. Their relative peace and order is upset by Akihiko (Yohichiroh Saitoh), the bumptious cousin from Tokyo on vacation from college who is insensitive to the trauma that the trio has endured and increasingly suspicious of the kids' ersatz guardian. His disapproval of Makoto grows when that same comely office work turns up dead, and Makoto is the prime suspect. Looking to break out of their routine, and cleared of murder charges, Makoto purchases an old bus and converts it into a camper. Taking his three housemates on an odyssey that begins at the site of the hijacking, they slowly start to reconcile the grief and pain that so destroyed their lives. Unfortunately, the killing seems to follow them along their way. A poignant, emotional journey clocking in at just under four hours, Eureka won the prestigious FIPRESCI Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and was screened at the 2000 Toronto and New York Film Festivals. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review
Eureka is a nuanced tale about the lingering emotional cost of sudden, inexplicable tragedy, told on an epic scale (think The Sweet Hereafter merged with The Searchers). Director Shinji Aoyama, who has been consistently responsible for some of the most interesting works to come out of Japan, was reportedly inspired to write this tale in the wake of religious cult Aum Shinrikyo's 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway. Indeed, the film's dour desperation nails the zeitgeist of Japan during the mid- to late 1990s, when the country's economic recession and repeated freak crimes contributed to an overall sense of malaise. As with earlier works such as Helpless, Aoyama's sense of character is remarkably acute and, for Eureka, he bravely uses the film's much noted four-hour length to allow the emotions of the characters to evolve from shock and grief to a slow and painful acceptance of that violent episode, in a manner that never seems forced or cliched. Koji Yakusho is, as always, excellent as a man who is haunted by his past and struggling to regain sense in his life. Aoi Miyazaki and Masaru Miyazaki -- first-time actors and real-life siblings -- are remarkably assured as mute twins who struggle for a reason to live. Renowned cinematographer Masaki Tamura's black and white cinematography gives the film a stark, wintry feel that deftly evokes the internal worlds of the film's characters. Eureka is a brave work of pain and redemption by one of world cinema's new shining lights. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Eureka is a drama, set mainly in rural Japan, and is mostly shot in sepia tone. It tells the story of a young boy and girl, Naoki Tamura and Kozue Tamura (Masaru Miyazaki and Aoi Miyazaki, who are real-life siblings) who are on a bus when it is hijacked by a crazed killer. They, along with the bus driver, Makoto Sawai (Koji Yakusho), are the only survivors and flee together. But upon their attempted return to their normal lives, Makoto becomes a suspect in a series of murders and the children become orphaned. These numerous unfortunate events bring the three, along with the orphans' cousin, Akihiko (Yoichiro Saito), back together, forming a family and working toward reconciliation from the shared hijacking experience.
