Director Shin Togashi`s film focuses squarely on a young Oshin (Hamada) who, at the tender age of seven, must leave her home and family to work as a live-in servant for a timber trader. But, tough as her circumstances already are, the vicissitudes of life do not spare Oshin. Soon, she finds herself stumbling through a blizzard into the forsaken log cabin of ex-soldier Shunsaku (Shinnosuke Mitsushima), before she fetches up in the home of the wealthy rice-trading Kagaya family, run by its matriarch (Izumi).
In remaining true to the spirit and narrative of the television series, this incarnation of Oshin has the tendency to feel rather episodic. It`s quite easy to trace the beats and rhythms of a more fragmented story. But that doesn`t really detract from the power of Oshin`s tale, which is really one about mothers, daughters and women. As it turns out, three decades has made little difference to an age-old story extolling the virtues of sacrifice, humility and perseverance, one that`s told here with great sensitivity. The frequent tests of her fortitude and integrity not to mention the depths that her own mother (Aya Ueto) must sink to in order to make ends meet will wring tears out of the hardest of hearts.
Hamada is a marvel. Beating out close to 2,500 other candidates for the part, she carries the film easily on her tiny shoulders. As Oshin, she switches seemingly effortlessly from sunshine-bright innocence to steely resilience. She`s so enormously expressive that it`s almost impossible to take your eyes off her in a scene, even when she`s surrounded by a great cast of supporting actresses. Ueto and Izumi are both excellent, the former despairing of the need to essentially sell her daughter into indentured servitude, the latter transcending class and prejudice to see the intelligence and spirit burning within Oshin. Fans of the original television series will be thrilled, too, to see Ayako Kobayashi who played Oshin then as a mother within the Kagaya family.
It`s no wonder that Oshin`s story has become part of Japan`s cultural heritage, and a symbol of strength and endurance the world over. In a media industry that still has trouble developing and portraying powerful, rounded, non-sexualised female characters, Oshin comes as a breath of fresh air which is, sadly, all the more troubling for the fact that this is a story that`s thirty years old.
Summary: A powerful, heartbreaking story about a little girl surviving against all odds.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Shawne Wang