The Cinematheque

“A studied, cool, and convincing examination of modern relationships.”

Tom Charity, Time Out

Widely considered to be Suwa’s crowning achievement, the international breakthrough of the Japanese auteur won the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes and festival acclaim worldwide. Rendered with patience, sensitivity, and remarkable precision of form, M/​Other observes the ripple effects in a Tokyo couple’s relationship when a divorced father’s eight-year-old son comes to live with him and his new girlfriend. As traditional gender roles creep into the home—including an onus on women to provide childcare—a hasty marriage proposal sets the relationship spiraling. (Popping the question also serves as catalyst for crisis in 2/​Duo, the director’s superb preceding feature.) Suwa, shooting without script in scrupulous long takes, elicits astonishingly naturalistic, improvised performances from leads Miura Tomokazu and Watanabe Makiko, both credited as co-writers. The film’s discordant score, penetrating insights into domestic dynamics, and striking formal assuredness bespeak a director operating at the apex of his considerable powers.

One of the ten best films of 2000 (#6)
Cahiers du cinéma

“Visually exciting … Highly intelligent, with careful organization of material that builds the theme without bringing it to the surface … Suwa has a Pialat-like taste for contradiction-as-realism.”

Dan Sallitt, critic and filmmaker