Review of Still Walking / 歩いても歩いても, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

There was a period throughout 2025 where I was left unemployed, and I was so incredibly grateful to be in the financial situation where if I wanted to take a break and step away from the grind, I could. I didn’t intend for it to be as long as it was, as I was applying to over 300 jobs and couldn’t find a position. Not a great time to job hunt during one of one of the worst job markets in decades.

I am happy to report I did find a job, but when I was unemployed I was watching a lot of movies and reading books in order to fill the time when I wasn’t spending it stalking LinkedIn and Indeed. It took 300 job applications, but I did find a gig fifteen minutes down from where I live, so I’m happy with my commute and the gig I did end up finding.

But before then, I was writing a lot of blog posts about the movies and shows I was watching, and this post is from one of them. However, in the period where I was unemployed and waiting to start my job, for some reason I watched a ton of Japanese shows and movies specifically.

I don’t know why, as I never really used to watch Japanese dramas and movies beyond the staples on a consistent basis, but I was really in the mood before I started this job for some reason. After watching all of Glass Heart over the course of two days, I ended up turning Kanopy on and searching for a Kore-eda movie.

And that was how I ended up watching Still Walking! It’s been on my to-watch list for years, but I simply never got around to it. Let’s get into the review before I keep rambling though.

Generations of a family gather for a sad event, but as viewers we learn how they got to this point.

Although this fact isn’t obvious upfront, the main point of the family depicted in the film gathering is to commemorate the death of one of its members: Junpei. Junpei was the eldest son, a father, and an uncle, and he died twelve years prior to the events of the film after trying to save a boy from drowning. He ended up drowning instead.

At the beginning of the movie, his parents, Kyohei and Toshiko, are joined by their son Ryota. He has just remarried a widow with a son, and his parents don’t exactly like this fact. Ryota is a bit of an outcast in the sense where he knows his dead brother was the favorite, that his parents are still mourning Junpei, and they sometimes see Junpei in him. His father is also disappointed that Ryota didn’t become a doctor.

His sister, Chinami, also comes to the home with her husband and children. She wants her family to move in with the parents so they can take care of them as they get older. As all of this goes down, Toshiko and Kyohei are rude to Yukari (Ryota’s new wife) because of their superstitions (it’s the fact she’s a widow), and Ryota, when alone with Yukari he tells her that he might not find a job in his field.

The film spends scenes with the family where they discuss their lives and careers, and Ryota acts like everything is okay with his. That night, the boy Junpei saved visits the family. Turns out he’s unemployed at 25, and they make some cruel thoughts and statements about how he should have died instead of Junpei, who was successful. Ryota is the only one to say something positive about him and tells his mother they should stop having him come over. His mother then tells him Yoshio is the physical manifestation of the blame of her son dying.

Chinami’s family gets ready to leave and it’s time for dinner. Yukari tries to talk to Ryota’s parents about their marriage, which opens up even more wounds. Turns out they shouldn’t be together but are staying so for some reason. Toshiko then tells a story about a record she purchased because she heard Kyohei singing it at another person’s home, which is such an intimate and weirdly sweet story to cut the previous tension.

Toshio watches later in the night as a butterfly comes inside and lands on Junpei’s sister. She thinks it’s her dead son, even though Ryota refuses to acknowledge it as such. His mother then tells him to have a child with Yukari so it’s then harder for ehr to get a divorce. They all go to bed, but then when the neighbor has chest pains in the middle of the night, Kyohei apologizes and watches an ambulance take her away.

Morning arrives, and Ryota and his little family prepare to leave. Ryota and Yukari chat about whether they’re coming for New Year’s, then decide not to. A voiceover done by Ryota then provides the ending details of the film: his parents died several years later. Chinami never moved in, nor did he fulfill his promises to them. Ryota has a child with Yukari (a young daughter), and the film ends with them tending to the graves.

Overall Thoughts

For me, Kore-eda is the master of a family drama, and this is him at his finest. It’s interesting watching one of his movies that came out seventeen years ago, as I wonder how the dynamics of the family might have changed with the more contemporary setting. Technology is a weird thing that can both bridge and create more distance.

Anyways: this is such a subtle film, but it hits you hard in the face when you start breaking down the themes and messages it has. We often depict Confucian and Buddhist cultures in the West as being more family oriented, but then you watch movies like these and contemplate how it’s changed in the post-war era—or if it changed at all (thinking specifically of Sado and the rice jar here).

This is to say that I think Still Walking is a movie that will stick with me for a long time. I’m watching my parents get older and I contemplate how their stories are going to be lost, or how they mix up my sisters’ names with each other. They have not lost a child in the violent manner that Junpei went, but that’s an unimaginable grief for any parent. I sympathize with Ryota’s parents here.

Go watch this one if you are interested and can access it! I know I was able to watch it for free due to Kanopy, which is a platform my local library system gives to all library card holders. I imagine it is available elsewhere online because it is a Kore-eda movie.

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