Japanese society places a high value on wa, or social harmony, but the reality of urban life — as seen in Chihiro Amano’s uneven-but-likeable comedy-drama “Mrs. Noisy” — is often lived at high decibels that lead to neighborly discord.
Premiering in the Japanese Cinema Splash section of last year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, the film has since played on the international festival circuit, where its broad humor and feel-good humanism have earned it fans among critics and audiences.
Scripted by Amano, whose short films have won a long shelf of awards, “Mrs. Noisy” begins with a situation familiar to many Japanese apartment dwellers, including this reviewer: A struggling writer, Maki Yoshioka (Yukiko Shinohara), is wrestling with her prose on her laptop when her next-door neighbor, Miwako Wakata (Yoko Ootaka), begins loudly beating a futon on her balcony.