“Still Walking” is a small, intimate, charming family drama done with the lightest touch and the most naturalistic approach. Yes, some might find it slow, but this is one of those films that stays with you, long after the credits have finished rolling.

The film clearly aims to capture how people relate to each other within a family environment. Particular attention is given to the family’s daily routine and the small details.
With my “western eyes” I found some of the details of Japanese “normal country life” absolutely fascinating and almost mesmerising: all the business of taking off the shoes, or the pouring of water over the tomb stones makes it all look like a complete different world, but then things like the ordering of take away sushi or the little boy mixing sodas in the same glass gives it a strange sense of familiarity.
Some of it does feel a bit too indulgent (The preparation of the food for example seem to go on for quite a long time) and take you away from what’s really the key of the story: the interaction between all the characters, which is where the film really excels.

The plot revolves around a man visiting his elderly parents for the 15th anniversary of his brother’s death.

Koreeda is a master of building a scene that seems absolutely normal but hides something completely different underneath. It’s as if the picture told you something and the dialogue something else…
People sit around the table, eat their food, make small talk: everything seems normal in the gentle summer breeze as the static camera frames the action in almost unedited sequences and then all of a sudden comes a line of dialogue (sometimes even off camera) that makes you see everything in a complete different light

As the film unravels the audience gets closer and closer to each member of the family, starts to hear their thoughts and feel their pain and at the end, the fact that it was a Japanese family is pretty irrelevant.