Films about caregivers typically feature adult children dealing with aged parents in terminal decline. In Japan, the ravages of dementia have inspired many such films, which is understandable given the rapid graying of the society.
Going against the grain of this downbeat genre was “The Intouchables,” the 2011 Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano film about a grouchy white quadriplegic who bonds with his free-spirited Black caregiver. It was on my mind as I watched “Just the Two of Us,” Keita Fujimoto’s barbed, engaging drama based on Ryuichi Matsushita’s award-winning script.
It doesn’t equal “The Intouchables” in laughs, though it does have flashes of puckish humor. Similar to the French film’s central pair, however, who bicker and quarrel before becoming pals, the caregiver and client in “Just the Two of Us” start by locking horns. One major difference is that the caregiver, Hanae (Shiori Doi), is blind, while her client, Shunsaku (Masatoshi Nagase), is a painter who broke his neck in a motorcycle accident years earlier and is now angry and embittered.