Mipo O¡¯s ¡°Living in Two Worlds¡± is a film with such good intentions, made with such diligence toward issues of representation, it feels unsporting to point out that it¡¯s also a trifle dull. This decade-spanning tale of the growing pains of a young man (Ryo Yoshizawa) born to deaf parents is well acted and raises the bar for depictions of deafness in Japanese cinema, but in other respects it¡¯s an archetypal message movie.
It nevertheless marks a welcome return for O, whose ravishing downer drama ¡°The Light Shines Only There¡± (2014) heralded the arrival of a major talent, only for her to drop off the radar after delivering a follow-up, ¡°Being Good¡± (2015). If you¡¯re wondering what she¡¯s been doing since then, the answer is simply that she found making feature films to be incompatible with the demands of raising two children.
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