Christianity is a minority religion in Japan and films here focusing on Japanese Christians are few. Japanese directors who are also practicing Christians are even harder to find.

Koichiro Oyama is not Christian, as far as I know, though his first feature, “His Bad Blood,” is populated with Christian believers and apostates.

The film grapples with issues of sin and forgiveness without the sort of caricaturing found in other Japanese films with Christian themes and motifs, while going beyond the trappings of the religion in presenting a story of father-son discord. Though turbulent like many a family melodrama here, the film is rooted in real, dark emotions, not received attitudes.