The Mohican Comes Home

Metalhead and good-for-nothing Eikichi returns unannounced to his home village on a small island after seven years. Out of the blue, he brings the news that his girlfriend is expecting a baby and that they will soon be getting married. The parents’ initial consternation eventually culminates in a drinking party with the local community to celebrate the return, the marriage and the first grandchild. When the father suddenly collapses during the party, he is rushed to the hospital, where terminal lung cancer is diagnosed. Eikichi and his girlfriend are forced to postpone their return home for a while…

Director Shuichi Okita already charmed us with his “A Story of Yonosuke” (2013). With “The Mohican Comes Home” he also navigates between comedy and drama without falling into cheap sentimentality. Against a tragic background, he sketches the funny and at the same time heartwarming attempts of father and son to cover up their old differences with the cloak of love for music.

“The Mohican Comes Home” is a charmingly cut slice of life about a pleasantly disturbed family that finds each other (again) in a bittersweet period.

All images: © 2016 “The Mohican Comes Home”