Tokyo-1997 Review of Noriko's Dinner Table

Noriko's Dinner Table (2005)

A well made movie, but needed a little more character development

[7/10 · 16 October 2010]

This movie was quite entertaining, but I have got one very major complain about this movie. This movie did not really show how the father was bad to his daughters. The father just cared about his work, so when the daughter, Noriko and her sister ran away, did not bother him much. That showed how cruel Noriko's father is. The father even asked his wife to help him do his work, so you can see how obsessed the father is at work. As mentioned towards the end of the show, Noriko's father may even hit her if she asked him something. However, the character development for Noriko's father to see how distant he is towards his daughter could have been made much better like the movie "Click". I thought this movie should also focus more on the "Problem" rather than just the "Solution".Click really shows that when when the main character was obsessed with his work, and when his kids ask him a question, he would scold them and shout at them loudly. The movie also shows how obsessed the main character was obsessed with his work(when he got back home he just did and did his work without even caring about the kids). So you can see how distant their relationship is and feel touch for the characters. This movie did not really manage to make me feel touch because they focused too much on the solution rather than the problem. I did not really feel that the relationship of the daughter and father was very far unlike the movie CLICK. The first half an hour of this movie could have used to build up development instead of long boring dialogs. This movie still managed to be interesting though, it managed to be touching at times, especially when they are trying to solve the problem by doing some 'acting'. This movie is unique and entertaining. It is fun to watch due to its rather good storyline though poor character development. Furthermore, the ending pratically spoiled the entire film. The ending was extremely aggravating and terrible. I thought the whole problem was solved. A lot of effort was put in to solve the problem. What wrong with Noriko's sister? Why did she do something so stupid? Why did she run away? This ending is just horrible and extremely aggravating. This film somehow did not impact me as much as suicide club. I preferred suicide club to this film. Though this film was still good because it was very very entertaining though not convincing enough for me. Score: 7/10