Review | 52-Hertz Whales movie review: Japanese tear-jerker starring Hana Sugisaki as abuse victim an immersive character study
- A woman who sustained years of abuse attempts to save a boy from a similar fate after arriving in a beautiful seaside town in Izuru Narushima’s 52-Hertz Whales
- Narushima directs with an understated hand but, while moving, the film is complicated needlessly by a curveball revelation halfway through the story
3/5 stars
The title of 52-Hertz Whales alludes to a theory upheld by oceanographers that a lone cetacean navigates the seas, conversing at a lower sonic frequency than all other aquatic mammals. Its song has been recorded numerous times, but the creature never spotted, earning it the distinction of “world’s loneliest whale”.
Adapted from Sonoko Machida’s award-winning 2021 novel, the film stars Hana Sugisaki as Kiko, who arrives in a beautiful seaside town near Oita, Japan, hoping to start a new life.
Rumours circulate about why she fled Tokyo, but Kiko is more concerned about a mute, long-haired boy known only as “Bug” (Tori Kuwana), who appears to be living destitute.
She tracks down the boy’s mother (Nanae Nishino), who is working as a waitress and wants nothing to do with the child she claims ruined her life. Kiko takes him in and, through a series of flashbacks, we learn of her own similarly traumatic upbringing.
