ALL THE SONGS WE HAVE NEVER SANG make a beautiful family drama

September in the Netherlands means that the Camera Japan Festival is back again, first in Rotterdam and a week later in Amsterdam. First and foremost it is a film festival, but music and food always play an important role. There are often workshops linked to several of the titles played there, for example a whiskey tasting accompanies a drama about Japanese craft whiskeys. That’s why it’s a shame that there are no pearl oysters in the port of Rotterdam in the gentle, biting Japanese family drama from Polish director Chris Ludz All the songs we never sang is good enough to combine a pearl diving event with.

In it, we follow 17-year-old Natsumi as she travels to a Japanese island community to live with her estranged Aunt Reiko, one of the region’s traditional pearl divers. When Natsumi arrives unannounced, the withdrawn and argumentative Reiko is initially not interested in keeping the Tokyo-born and raised girl with her, but when Natsumi starts helping with diving, a tentative bond grows between the two women.

But Natsumi has a secret agenda: she’s trying to find out why her mother left the island and why that ruined Reiko’s happiness so much. As Natsumi’s investigations uncover ancient secrets, anger and malice may prove stronger than family relationships…

There are many ways to do this All the songs we never sang It could have been trite or boring, but director Chris Rudz cleverly manages to avoid the usual pitfalls and his film remains charming and interesting right to the end. Yes, there are jokes and goofy characters on the island, yes, the family secret gets into dark territory just when you expect it, yes, there are culture clashes and age clashes… but it’s all shown with a lot of heart with Nagase Miru and Kanô Junko as two believable leads. And although I would have liked to know more about the Ama traditions of pearl diving (the film remains quite superficial in this part), for the duration of All the songs we never sang I felt like I was on vacation in a faraway part of the world.

Overall it’s a feel-good film, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself and I really enjoyed spending time with these characters. Kudos to Chris Rudz, who gave me and my wife a gentle film, light comedies and dramas and a fairly pleasant evening.