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Pale Moon

2014 [JAPANESE]

Drama

3
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Certified Fresh 69% · 4 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 69%
IMDb Rating 6.9/10 10 987 987

based on novel or book scam extramarital affair embezzlement

Plot summary

Daily, Rika Umezawa battles a nagging sense of emptiness and dissatisfaction. She works a tiring job, comes home to an unappreciative husband and has little opportunity to enjoy life. But things change when office gossip about affairs and embezzlement inspire Rika to do the unthinkable. Soon, Rika finds herself filling the void with a university student named Kota and the millions entrusted to her by clients. Is her newfound lifestyle the key to happiness? And if so, how long can it last?

Director

Daihachi Yoshida Photo
Daihachi Yoshida

Top cast

Yûko Ôshima Photo
Yûko Ôshima as Keiko Aikawa
Rie Miyazawa Photo
Rie Miyazawa as Rika Umezawa
Renji Ishibashi Photo
Renji Ishibashi as Kôzô Hirabayashi
Yûna Taira Photo
Yûna Taira as Rika Umezawa in Junior High
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.14 GB
1280*536
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 49
2.11 GB
1920*804
Japanese 2.0
NR
Subtitles
23.976 fps
2 hr 6 min
Seeds 96

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by mister_bateman 5 / 10

A corrupt woman's journey towards self destruction

I didn't like this movie because the main character was not relatable or elicited any sympathy. She's just a bad person. Other reviewers were interpreting some feminist "women's liberation" message into this story and lauding her as some kind of heroine, because she betrays her husband and goes and "does what she wants". (Goes to show you again how toxic that ideology is.) All I see is a corrupt, stupid woman throwing away her life and her marriage for material goods and short term hedonistic pleasure with an underage boy two decades younger than her. It's also entirely predictable that she won't get away with it. At one point she is asked about children and if she's trying to have one. She doesn't answer. Maybe she or her husband can't have any, that would at least partially explain her nihilistic attitude and her self-destructive behavior.
Reviewed by Kicino 7 / 10

Challenges for kind and hardworking Japanese women in modern Japan

I was looking forward to see this movie, got a little disappointed and went to read the novel. Well, there is a quite a big change during the adaptation and I have to say that the transition in the novel is better but focusing the couple in the movie is probably a better idea.The movie is choppy because there seems to be little depiction of why the main protagonist, middle-aged wife bank employee Rika Umezawa (Rie Miyazawa) would fall for a university student Kota Hirabayashi (Sosuke Ikematsu) who could be her son. Equally unconvincing is why the young man would fall for her apart from the money and the material comfort it brings. The economy backdrop and the social issues brought about from the movie and the book are interesting though: after the economy bubble burst in the 1990s in Japan, everyone work hard to maintain a life their parents take for granted. More women and hourly-paid workers join the work force but they are not respected or supported by their company, or even by their own family members. Yet these women work very hard, though some slight skid and falls into affairs with their supervisor while some, like Rika, begin to let greed take over.In her work, neglected housewife Rika finds satisfaction as well as distraction from her efforts in having babies. To prove her existence, she begins to embezzle from her bank to finance her material comfort and starts an affair with a young man, the grandson of one of her clients. She sinks deeper and reaches a point of no return. The novel describes two side lines of Rika's friends falling into the same trap of defining themselves by consumerism. But the movie focuses on Rika which I think is a clever move. Yet the building up and fading out of the affair seem to flow rather weakly. The detached marriage can also be better portrayed/ traced.It is an excellent move to place Satomi Kobayashi as a loyal and single bank employee in comparison with Rika. She seems to serve as a conscience in contrast. This character does not exist in the novel and is a great addition in the adaptation. Both actresses are great. In fact, the whole cast is quite good, but the weak plot kind of hampers the movie. To understand contemporary Japan and the country's predicament in dealing with the new millennium, perhaps we have to watch both the movie and read the novel to reach more insights. More food for Minister Abe to munch on too.
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