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What Can You Do about It だってしょうがないじゃない (2019) Director: Yoshifumi Tsubota

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What Can You Do about It   What Can You Do About It Film Poster

だってしょうがないじゃない  「Datteshou ganai Janai

Release Date: 2019

Duration: 120 mins.

Director: Yoshifumi Tsubota

Writer: N/A

Starring: Makoto Ohara, Yoshifumi Tsubota, Machiko Kimura, Yoshinori Kimura, Tatsuyoshi Tsubota, Yoko Tsubota, Masako Tsubota, Miharu Seki, Naoko Misawa, Hiroo Shibata,

Website IMDB

After being diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 45, feature-film director Yoshifumi Tsubota (The Shell Collector) informed his parents and was told of a relative in a similar situation.

Makoto Ohara, Tsubota’s father’s second cousin, was diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), a type of autism, in his late fifties. At the time of filming, he was in his sixties and still living fairly independently. Intrigued by this hitherto-unknown relation whose somewhat similar situation might offer inspiration on how to live life, Tsubota, with camera in hand, decided to meet Makoto. Thus began the documentary, What Can You Do About It

Over the course of three years Tsubota travelled from his home in Yokohama to  Makoto’s home in Tsujido (both in Kanagawa Prefecture) to pay regular visits and record their interactions on a handheld camera and his phone. What he found was a man who was living by himself on disability benefits ever since the passing of his mother, hanging on with the help of a support network made up of an older sister, elderly relatives, and volunteers sourced from the local authorities.

Tsubota becomes more and more invested in Makoto’s life as conflicts with an intolerant neighbour and talk of Makoto being put in an institution begin. These events force conflict and a structure on the film. We often see Makoto with his head bowed as other people talk over his future, growing old with a disability and a few times he utters the refrain, “What can you do about it?” which gives the film its title. There’s a certain fatalistic ring to this phrase, but…

This may sound like heavy material but fear not. It is told lightly and with skill.

What Can You Do About It initially begins as a portrait of an almost-elderly man living with a disability to a document of the development of a deep kinship between the filmmaker and his subject.

As the two relatives bond, there is a little self-documentary as Tsubota explores his own situation with wryly told self-documentary wherein he reveals his marriage strife and chaotic work habits. There is also a look at society’s care provisions for people with mental disabilities. What I must emphasise is that it is all housed in a charming buddy film dynamic as the two middle-aged men get to know each other and work up a genuine bond based on care and respect and this will carry viewers along.

What Can You Do About It Film Image R

The film radiates a positivity as the two relatives on excursion to shopping centres, baseball games, and travel by trains and find moments to laugh and understand their predicament. Laced into these vignettes are family details that help humanise Makoto, from black-and-white childhood photographs to colour photographs and discussions of family history. Makoto proves to be quite a resilient and interesting character as these details reveal he was a welder and soldier before returning home to live with his mother who hid his condition and chose to take care of him until her end.

This aspect provides a emotionality to the film as we learn that the loss of his mother left a profound sadness in Makoto and also coping habits that have hampered his present-day life. Thus, some of the film’s material is of Tsubota and others spending time trying break these habits while bringing the man into the modern world. This movement for change is powerfully visualised in how Makoto finds his lifestyle uprooted, first with the cherry blossom tree in his front garden being cut down, and then with the house being renovated. He copes, always cognisant of his predicament but moving forward, and so we watch as he grows and there is an optimism there that is reassuring to the viewer.

Likewise, the presence of welfare services such as various helpers for shopping and cleaning and “Listening Volunteers’’ who pay visits also offers an uplifting sense of hope. While it is noticeable that they are all elderly or middle-aged – representing the ageing of Japan’s society and possible problems in the future – what is more striking is how dedicated and enthusiastic each person is and that speaks to a communitarian mindset – and also the role government can play in fostering it – that holds society together. Tsubota showing people working together offers wider context for Makoto’s situation while also offering an informative blueprint for how society can protect and encourage vulnerable people.

While the film is told from Tsubota’s perspective and his narration explains things, he gives time and space for Makoto to convey his thoughts and show how he navigates his life through rituals that ease anxieties. Also, while Tsubota finds the humour in the incongruous aspects of Makoto’s life and behaviour – the most prominent being the living-room display that holds Kamen Rider figures and an erotic magazine, an interest in idols – this is never used in a humiliating way, rather, it illustrates just how mixed up life can be, a universal human experience. Makoto himself is very much aware of this and joins in on both the humour and discussions around morality and he shows a sharpness of mind that is to be respected.

In all, Tsubota presents a sincere portrait of a man who has a resilient character, all told through their interactions as we can see a growing affection and trust between the two with each visit and this is quite moving to watch! What Can You Do About It is an always engaging, touching, humane, and heartfelt documentary due to Makoto’s character and Tsubota’s approach to tackling a serious issue through him in a personal but straight-forward manner.


Watch the director interview on the Japan Film Festival+ website to find out what happened next to Makoto.


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