There
are many theories as to how the Asian variety of mock strawberry hebi
ichigo (Duchesnea chrysantha) – quite literally “snake strawberry”
got its name. The name is so old – the
Japanese adopted the name from the Chinese – that no one knows its origin for
certain. This pretty little flowering
plant of the rose family is found growing in the wild all over Japan. It resembles a wild strawberry, but disappoints
when eaten for it is bland. After
watching Miwa Nishikawa’s debut
feature film Hebi Ichigo (Wild Berries/蛇イチゴ, 2003), I had to think of the English idiom “snake in
the grass”, for in her film the members of the Akechi family are like the hebi ichigo: on the surface they appear as lovely as wild
strawberries but it is all a façade. In
fact, the more we learn about their true personalities, the more they appear to
be a den of venomous snakes.
The
Akechi family have mastered the art of tatemae
(建前, the public
face one is expected to uphold for the sake of family/work) to such a high
degree that not even other members of the family are aware of each other’s honne (本音, one’s true
feelings and desires). The father,
Yoshiro Akechi (Sei Hiraizumi), has
lost his job as a salaryman but puts on a pretense of going off to “work” each
day in the desperate hope of finding a job so that he does not lose face with
his family. His wife, Akiko (Naoko Otani) plays the role of dutiful
housewife, taking care of the household and her increasingly senile
father-in-law Kyozo Akechi played with terrific comic timing by the great
rakugo storyteller Matsunosuke
Shofukutei. Akiko never complains, despite
the fact that her situation has become intolerable.
When their daughter, the straight-laced school teacher Tomoko (Miho
Tsumiki), brings her boyfriend Kamata (Toru
Tezuka) home to meet the folks, he is totally taken in by the Akechi
family’s apparent normalcy. Having been
raised in a privileged family of inherited wealth, Kamata thinks that he has
found a potential wife from the ideal family in which the mother and father
selflessly sacrifice themselves by working hard for the good of the family. This public façade (tatemae) comes crashing down at the grandfather’s funeral when
one-by-one the members of the Akechi family begin to reveal their true selves (honne). The greatest family secret of all is Tomoko's disowned brother Shuji (Hirayuki Miyasako), the proverbial black sheep of the family, whose unexpected return brings even more chaos.
On
the surface, this sounds like an absolutely depressing tale, but Nishikawa has
written a brilliant black comedy on par, in my opinion, with the classic Alec Guinness vehicle Kind Hearts and Coronets (Robert Hamer,
1949). It’s the kind of humour that has
one cringing and laughing at the same time.
On the Japanese DVD release of Hebi
Ichigo the acerbic dialogue has been excellently translated by Linda Hoaglund (director of ANPO: Art X War)
for the English subtitles. It is rare
for a debut feature film to look and sound so terrific, but Nishikawa was
fortunate to have the guiding hand of Hirokazu
Koreeda (After Life, Still Walking) as her producer. Not only did the film go on to win Nishikawa
the Best New Director award at the 2004 Yokohama Film Festival, but it marked
the beginning of a directorial career that has been brilliant so far with Sway (2006) and Dear Doctor (2009) bringing her much critical praise.
Hebi Ichigo is available via cdjapan:
