The disaster on 11 March 2011 made a huge impression in Japan. Few filmmakers were capable of coming up with an original response, but Kobayashi found a personal way. He invited three actresses to his family home in the disaster-stricken area. They act like nothing happened.
Women on the Edge has four leads: three actresses and a house. A house in a beautiful rural location, the countryside tarnished by the disaster which struck Japan in March 2011. However, in the house’s immediate surroundings everything seems normal. The three actresses play the sisters Takako (Watanabe Makiko), Nobuko (Nakamura Yuko) and Satomi (Fujima Miho).
The three have a frosty relationship and the reunion is unplanned. They haven’t seen each other for ten years. They all accidentally return to the family home for different reasons, which leads to tensions, and the desolate landscape after the disaster just exacerbates the mood.
Kobayashi (The Rebirth) has previously shot films in this area that he loves, which led him to purchase the house that the film is set in and around. Initially he doubted whether shooting in the disaster area was appropriate, but those who live there encouraged him.
Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof:
In Tokyo, not long after having watched this film, I asked Kobayashi san whether he had, perhaps, been inspired by examples from theatre such as Chekhov’s Three Sisters. He gave me a dubious look. No, that wasn’t the case. Perhaps he looked so concerned because he was afraid he’d be asked that question more often in connection with this film. I could share his concern because the film’s origins lie far from theatre - in real life. The original question being: How can you still make a film after the Biggest Disaster? Kobayashi even doubted the answer to that question while he was filming and he may still have had his doubts during the premiere in Tokyo. He would have steeled himself for questions about the Disaster, not ones about a classic Russian play.
The film adheres to the classical Aristotelian theatrical law of unity of place and action. The house is the sole setting and the three sisters meeting again - primarily a confrontation between three actresses - is the only action.
That is the exceptional thing about this film: the meeting of classic form and improvised contemporary content.