When was your last family reunion?

Who was the one cooking at your home?

What food do you miss most at home?

Aruitemo Aruitemo (Still Walking), a film directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, depicts a Japanese family who gather yearly to mark the death of the eldest son. Perhaps, family reunion is something to celebrate, yet the loss of a son is definitely not. The dad, Kyohei Yokoyama (played by Yoshio Harada) was expecting the eldest son to continue his prestigious career as a doctor, but the eldest son lost his life by saving someone else from drowning. The second son Ryoto (played by Hiroshi Abe), not only didn’t become a doctor, but he married a divorced woman with a kid. Ryoto suffered from not living up to his dad’s expectation. Death did bring family member to reunite but gradually they were wearing apart as well.

The mother (played brilliantly by Kirin Kiki) was busy preparing dishes with her daughter Chinami Kataoka (played by You – the mother from Koreeda’s Nobody Knows, another great film). It’s interesting to see the way the mom preparing food. It’s even more interesting to know that instead of making everything from scratch in the kitchen, the mom also ordered some sushi delivery. One of the favourite family food is corn tempura. It represented a shared happy memories of the good old days. Ryoto could still recall little details of the corn tempura preparation, from harvesting, shaving the kernels off the cob, to the bubbling of fritters frying in hot oil and enjoying the light, crisp and sweet corn tempura.

I believe that the bond among family members is hard to break. I believe that home cooking is a binding agent. This is the power of food. This is the power of love.