This blog post explores how the film “Maison de Himiko” creates a lingering resonance through its characters’ complex emotions and delicate relationships. Let’s follow the deep emotional impact conveyed by its warm gaze and slow pace.
The Genre Characteristics of Drama
The drama genre has quietly become one of the indispensable genres in Korean cinema. While the term ‘drama’ itself is difficult to strictly define as a genre-specific label, it has solidified as a distinct genre in Korea and is widely used. This is similar to how ballads have established themselves as a uniquely Korean music genre. Defining drama as a genre and examining its characteristics, it can be described as films that take stories unfolding in everyday life—sometimes trivial, sometimes tragic or comedic events—as their subject matter. Love stories between men and women, conflicts between parents and children, and similar narratives are often presented either in a straightforward manner or through somewhat extreme settings. This approach can be considered a defining feature of the drama genre. Moreover, the ability to move people and leave a lingering resonance in their hearts is another crucial characteristic of the drama genre. It doesn’t overtly preach, “This is how it must be done!” Instead, it quietly and subtly seeps into the heart, immersing the viewer in the film’s emotions without them even realizing it. That is the essence of drama.
“Maison de Himiko” and Drama
The story of “Maison de Himiko” begins when a young, handsome man visits Saori, who hates her gay father for abandoning her and her mother long ago yet finds herself in dire financial straits. He was none other than her father’s lover, Haruhiko. Haruhiko informs Saori that her father, Himiko, has cancer and doesn’t have long to live. He asks her to come help manage the gay retirement community her father built. Saori had lived denying her father’s very existence, the man who had abandoned her and her mother simply because he was gay. Yet, lured by the prospect of a substantial inheritance, she decides to go there once a week. And so, every Sunday morning, Saori knocks on the door of ‘Maison de Himiko’.
Inside Maison de Himiko, a gay retirement community by the sea reminiscent of a small European castle, live diverse people, each with their own unique personalities and stories. Initially distancing herself due to her father’s wounds, Saori harbors hatred and prejudice toward the very existence of ‘gay’ people. Yet, gradually encountering their unadorned, pure nature and the loneliness and struggles hidden beneath, she slowly begins to open her heart. This shift in Saori’s perspective mirrors the changing gaze of the film’s audience. The audience’s perspective, which was initially filled with hatred toward homosexuals, shifts along with Saori’s changing view. They find themselves gradually accepting these individuals.
While the film doesn’t explicitly push a theme like “let’s warmly embrace homosexuals,” it leaves a lingering impression by transforming the audience’s perspective through Saori’s own shift. This aspect allows us to categorize “Maison de Himiko” within the drama genre.
Throughout the film, Saori constantly walks around with a sullen expression, her eyebrows furrowed. I think Saori is the perfect character for this kind of film that’s hard to easily define. She wears that sullen expression and speaks curtly to everyone, but that doesn’t mean she lacks goodwill towards others. That said, she isn’t an ‘angel’ who treats everyone kindly. She’s simply a good person, like most people, possessing enough warmth that she can’t just walk past someone in need. Saori just expresses nearly all her emotions as anger. Whether something good or bad happens, she wears a frown. It’s rare to see Saori smiling in the film. Within this expression that seems like a mask yet isn’t quite one, emotions remain vaguely defined. Audiences engage with the film through clumsy guesswork and sparse hints. The image itself conveys meaning without clear definition.
Let’s examine the relationship between Saori and Haruhiko, the film’s protagonists. To Saori, Haruhiko is nothing but the evil homosexual who stole her father away. Of course, her father didn’t intentionally abandon Saori and her mother for his relationship with Haruhiko, but from Saori’s perspective, Haruhiko becomes someone deserving of contempt. Yet Haruhiko persistently strives to restore the father-daughter relationship, and it is precisely this effort that sets the story in motion.
As the story progresses, Saori becomes completely immersed in the life at Maison de Himiko. Witnessing her father’s illness and Haruhiko’s love for his father, she begins to understand Haruhiko as a person. Furthermore, though Saori had been unable to forgive her gay father who had declared his homosexuality and abandoned her and her mother, she learns that he had secretly continued meeting her mother all along. She also discovers that he had been harboring feelings of guilt towards her and her mother, suffering in pain and longing for them. This realization leads her to naturally forgive him.
Then one day, enveloped in a strange atmosphere, Saori and Haruhiko share a kiss and are about to sleep together. But Haruhiko is, after all, gay. Therefore, even though Saori likes Haruhiko and Haruhiko likes Saori, they cannot develop into lovers. Moreover, it’s not easy to simply define the feelings they felt as love. Saori and Haruhiko’s relationship is truly complex. They are neither family, colleagues, friends, nor lovers. Yet, just because a relationship between a man and a woman develops doesn’t necessarily mean it becomes love. I also think the very attempt to define their relationship with any words is unnecessary.
Anyway, after that day when they could no longer kiss, their relationship became even more ambiguous. Then one day, seeing Ruby—who, despite being transgender, had hidden that fact—entrusted to her own child due to a sudden cerebral hemorrhage, Saori was enraged. She was furious at them for trying to avoid the pain of witnessing Ruby’s death, citing financial hardship as their reason. This became the catalyst for Saori leaving ‘Maison de Himiko’. By doing so, her relationship with Haruhiko was completely severed.
But eventually, ‘Maison de Himiko’ and Saori would reunite. And when Haruhiko offers Saori—perhaps for the very first time—a warm, heartfelt word from his innermost feelings, Saori, as always, wears a sulky expression while tears cascade down her face like a waterfall.
Because of that magic spell that made them, and all the movie’s audience, happy.
‘Piki piki piki-!’
Truthfully, it’s difficult to neatly categorize the film “Maison de Himiko” into a single genre. While love between a man and a woman clearly exists within the plot, it’s hard to view their love as a typical tragic romance, making it ambiguous to place it squarely within the ‘melodrama’ genre.
It deals with the stories of homosexuals, intertwined with the tales of the elderly, the relationship between a father and daughter, and the emotions between men and women. It’s a film where it’s genuinely difficult to definitively state, ‘This movie deals with this content.’ However, this film clearly doesn’t just haphazardly mix these stories together superficially; it speaks deeply about them in its own way.
That said, it’s also difficult to definitively state that this film is solely a complex narrative that clearly presents and develops a single specific theme regarding these various stories. While it has depth, it lacks a neatly defined conclusion. Rather, “Maison de Himiko” uses this complex blend of diverse elements to draw a kind of preventive line, preventing the relationships between characters from being defined with ruler-like precision, thereby emphasizing those subtle emotions even more. This is why it has been defined as a broad, comprehensive ‘drama’ – a category that seems like a genre but isn’t quite one.
Conclusion
Throughout the film, gentle music and serene visuals captivate the audience. It also deliberately creates a tightrope walk of complex, ambiguous emotions and tangled relationships, leaving clear definitions suspended so only the situations themselves exist. The relationship between Saori and Haruhiko—no, between Saori and the “Maison de Himiko” family—cannot be defined, nor does it need to be. What matters is simply that they cherish and love each other, and will forever embrace each other tenderly.
I found it difficult to categorize this film into a single genre. It doesn’t quite fit as a romance or melodrama, nor does it feel right to call it a thriller or comedy. So, it was defined by the somewhat peculiar genre label ‘drama’ used in the film information. Director Itsuki Inudo, who created this drama, is known for excelling at this type of film. Beyond “Maison de Himiko,” this atmosphere is also palpable in his earlier work introduced to Korea, “Josee, the Tiger and the Fish.” His films exude a distinct, unique atmosphere. Therefore, rather than defining this film solely by genre, it could also be seen as a quintessential Itsuki Inudo film. With its quiet emotional resonance and distinctive visuals, this film showed that life is precious to everyone and love is equal for all.
