Given the more rigid social norms, it must be especially difficult coming to terms with personal and professional failure in conservative Japan, but at least Ryota Shinoda has a lot of experience with it. He has not written a word since the publication of his award-winning debut novel fifteen years ago and is now in danger of losing all contact with his son due to his inability to make child support payments. His angst and regret are real, but he just keeps making things worse in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “After the Storm,” which opens March 17 in New York.
Supposedly, Shinoda started working at Koichiro Yamabe’s sleazy divorce detective agency to conduct research, but he has been there so long, it has become what he does—poorly. At least, he is competent enough to use his skills and connections to keep tabs on his ex-wife Kyoko Shiraishi.
