Suzaku

is a Japanese fiction film from 1997 written and directed by Naomi Kawase (in her feature directorial debut). The film follows the dissolution of a small rural Japanese family. Plot In the mountainous Nishiyoshino region of Nara Prefecture, a small family made up of Kōzō, the father, his wife Yasuyo, grandmother Sachiko, toddler Michiru, and her male cousin, Eisuke, live peacefully together. A railway is being constructed at which the father expects to be employed. He brings his nephew and daughter to the construction site and they explore the large cavernous tunnel through which the train is expected to pass. Fifteen years later the construction of the train has been abandoned. Michiru is now a teenage schoolgirl who has a crush on her cousin. Her mother meanwhile asks her nephew for help finding employment and he helps to secure her a position working at a small hotel where he works as a porter. Shortly after being employed there, Yasuyo faints. Afterwards, feeling depressed, Kōzō wanders off with his film camera and is later found dead by the police. The family struggles to get along after Kōzō's death with both Michiru and her mother falling into a depression. Yasuyo eventually decides that she wants to leave the village in order to go back and live with her parents though Michiru is against the idea. Before she leaves however she confesses to Eisuke that she loves him. They spend the night on the rooftop of the house playing around. The following day Eisuke reveals that he has the film from Kōzō's camera and the family watches scenes of different villagers and shots of nature that Kōzō took before his death.