REEL JAPAN

SCORE: 8/10

“Flipping through books so much your fingerprints wear off is a joy.” These words are spoken by a senior editor at the small Tokyo publisher at the center of this story. Based on the novel by Miura Shion, THE GREAT PASSAGE is an inspirational story about men and women who made their life’s work the creation of a new kind of dictionary. The film flows along as mellow as its color palette. Set in the 1990s and filmed in Kodakesque hues, the film slowly beckons you into its quirky environments and relationships. Cinematographer Fujisawa Junichi really knows how to photograph books: big books, small books, coffee table books, walls of books, piles of books. It would have been fun to see the design department build up each set from book-cluttered bedrooms to the labyrinthine dictionary office. 

Matsuda Ryuhei stars as Majime, a maladjusted word nerd perfect for his new job in the dictionary department. He immediately catches the infectious enthusiasm of his superiors. There will likely be many viewers for whom the prospect of this kind of inspired workplace offers the same wish fulfillment Diagon Alley might for Harry Potter fans. Matsuda was excellent in QUARTET, ASURA, and THE MAGNIFICENT NINE. Miyazaki Aoi (ATSUHIME, TENCHI: SAMURAI ASTRONOMER) is excellent as Hayashi, a young chef starting her life over in Tokyo, whose nighttime ritual of sharpening knives is not so much menacing as obsessive. Odagiri Joe is great as Majime’s sarcastic colleague Nishioka, who is worldly in all the ways Majime is not, including being experienced with women. Kobayashi Kaoru (MIDNIGHT DINER, 1972, and the NHK taiga drama NAOTORA) and Kato Go (DEATH OF A TEA MASTER, CLOUDS OVER A HILL), both veterans of the big and small screens are great as the seasoned editors. 

Watanabe Takashi provides an intriguing score, here somewhat jazzy on piano and vibraphone, with minimalist but impertinent brass, always eclectic. 

The filmmakers methodical process mirrors that seen on screen. For a dictionary that was projected to take years to complete, unsurprisingly time will lapse and move on. The film takes a sudden turn into new territory with the addition of Kuroki Haru (excellent in the NHK taiga dramas SEGODON and SANADA MARU) as a young female addition to the dictionary staff. Her character feels a little shortchanged in the narrative. Just as soon as she arrives, we are steeped in an editorial crisis that serves as a tense climax for the film as publishing deadlines loom. Overall, THE GREAT PASSAGE is a slow character study in a genre that we might define as workplace drama. Extra points for some wonderful cat actors. 

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