Somai captures both the energy and inquisitiveness of youth, and the resignation of the aged, as three boys’ encounter with a lonely old man brings about changed perspectives toward life and death. 

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Made as a follow-up to Moving (1993), probably Shinji Somai’s defining work, The Friends similarly features a very young protagonist.  Three, in fact, as they discover a dilapidated house with a large garden.  A lonely old man lives in it, venturing out once or twice a week to get daily necessities. 

Initially annoyed by the presence of these pesky boys, he slowly becomes acquainted, calling them Sumo, Bones and Specs, according to their, shall we say, physical features. 

That old man is played by Japanese Golden Age cinema legend Rentaro Mikuni (best known for Kon Ichikawa’s The Burmese Harp and Masaki Kobayashi’s Kwaidan), as he gives a restrained performance as a man haunted by past trauma, including his time as a soldier during WWII. 

Under Somai’s careful direction, we feel both the energy and inquisitiveness of youth (the boys love football, and they find the old man oddly fascinating), as well as the resignation of the aged. 

Even though breezy pieces of guitar music serenade moments of bliss and human connection, The Friends is decidedly morbid in its exploration of death. 

“These days, all I think about is dead people and what happens after you die.”

Be it the inescapable violence of war, the inevitable prospect of old age, or even the ephemerality of living from moment to moment, there is an undercurrent of “nothing lasts, yet some things can’t be erased”. 

Trauma can’t be tossed away; at the same time, great memories are also etched in the mind.  Yet, experiences after they have been experienced remain forever elusive. 

So, this is where I think The Friends works best—the idea that these boisterous boys would forever be changed by their spontaneous encounters with the old man, who, in turn, is reminded of his mortality. 

Interestingly, one of the boys, whilst working on the old man’s garden, is heard singing a few refrains from a popular song—twice, in fact, in separate scenes.  That song is from My Neighbour Totoro, released just six years earlier. 

In that Studio Ghibli anime, the children befriend their version of the ‘old man’ in the titular creature.  Similarly, it explores the nature of fleeting moments and encounters that lead to changed perspectives about how we might come to understand life.  I’d dare a programmer to curate a double-bill.     

Grade: A-

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Trailer: