Post-pandemic, Japanese films about weighty topics tend to unfold with nary a laugh or smile. Irony and irreverence are out, sincerity and gravitas are in. A prominent example is “Plan 75,” Chie Hayakawa’s dystopian drama that takes place in a near future where the government sponsors a program of euthanasia for old folks. The film firmly resists the temptations of satire and has been taken seriously as social commentary and even prophecy, with awards and accolades pouring in.
In comparison, Naoko Ogigami has never hidden her dry sense of humor, even though her recent films deal with everything from prejudice against transgender people (“Close-Knit”) to attitudes toward death and mourning (“Riverside Mukolitta”).
Her latest, “Ripples,” is laugh-out-loud funny, though her protagonist, a woman played to comic and dramatic perfection by Mariko Tsutsui, is struggling to hold on to her sanity: Yoriko’s life begins to fall apart following the sudden disappearance of her husband, Osamu (Ken Mitsuishi), who flees out of terror of radiation from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 reactor after the 2011 earthquake. (The opening sequence briskly skewers the paranoia surrounding the March 11 disaster, when otherwise sane people were afraid to drink tap water and were booking plane tickets to Okinawa and beyond.)