Miwa Nishikawa’s “Under the Open Sky”

Under the Open Sky (すばらしき世界, Subarashiki Sekai) (2020)

This story of an ex-Yakuza trying to go straight after spending much of his life in prison deals effectively with specific social commentary on the Japanese system while never quite feeling completely authentic or fully realised

The series of films sponsored by Tourism Japan started off quite badly (see my review for Yôji Yamada’s What a Wonderful Family!) and though Under the Open Sky is a step up, there’s something quite flat and conservative about the second installment playing at my local cinema. Led by a solid performance from Kōji Yakusho as Masao Mikami, an ex-Yakuza trying to go straight, Nishikawa’s portrayal of the prejudice he faces is convincing though the inner workings of the criminal underworld in the film never reach a convincing level of authenticity that the film sorely needs.

Masao is also prone to sudden bursts of anger often accompanied with violence which has led to his extended incarceration but the film doesn’t fully flesh out how he’s able to overcome these problems. Yakusho does a lot to raise the film with a compelling and interesting performance but there’s not quite enough there to lift the film beyond the pedestrian.

This story of redemption and social commentary lacks the nuance or atmosphere of films like Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom and never goes beyond average despite some hits on social commentary.