Is it possible to have a family? Kenji used to be linked to the mafia and involved in human trafficking, but then he sheltered the son of a deceased Chinese slave and changed his life. He became a driver. He now lives with little Achun and Yuri, the sister of his criminal friend, who is in prison. The reason for his strange fate lies in his childhood, when his mother abandoned him along with his drunken father. Many years later, he meets her again, but he has no filial feelings for her. On the contrary, he wants revenge on her, making her suffer. Her mother married the director of a small transportation company and wants Kenji to inherit the business. But he doesn't care. He allows the son of his mother from his second marriage to rape Yuri and escape, but then he kills him. That's why he's in jail.
Sad Holiday is a film about the possibility and impossibility of finding a family. On the one hand, Mamiya, the second husband of Kenji's mother, was able to shelter under his roof very different people who otherwise could have become ordinary vagabonds, and create a family out of them, on the other hand, Kenji was never able to reconcile with his mother. Ayaoma's films traditionally have an existential dimension, with characters looking for their way of being in the world, usually after experiencing a disaster. In Sad Holiday, the question of existence boils down to the question of independence from parents. Should we seek such independence at an early age or not? Kenji tells his mother, “You left me with your drunken father to be torn apart by life!” But it was this torment of life that made him a man, although probably inferior, because Kenji’s path was full of mistakes and crimes, and he was not even allowed to atone for his sin through caring for the Chinese boy Achun, because the mafia took him as soon as he grew a little older. Kenji's childhood was spoiled, and this is the source of his troubles. Aoyama is ruthless to his hero, or rather, makes a ruthless life towards him. The same is true of the other characters. None of them achieve true liberation from the yoke of life. Their desires are crushed by an inexorable reality. Family can help to brighten up the bitterness of experiences, but it is much easier to lose than to gain.
In addition to the family theme, Aoyama touched on the theme of the proximity of criminal reality to law-abiding life. The seemingly inconspicuous driver Kenji, it turns out, was trafficking people. It seems that ordinary employees of the transport company owe money to the mafia. This breath of crime seems to indicate the impossibility of getting out of the trap of life in a natural way through the growth of consciousness and soul. Aoyama’s film is about powerlessness in the face of such a trap, but since Kenji’s mother plans her first son to inherit the business, all is not lost.
8 out of 10