Living in Two Worlds (2024)

Plot Summary: Based on the autobiographical essay by Dai Igarashi, this Japanese drama follows a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) as he navigates between the hearing and deaf worlds, exploring themes of identity, family, and belonging.

Director: Mipo O
Screenplay: Takehiko Minato
Based on: Autobiographical essay by Dai Igarashi

Starring:
Ryô Yoshizawa as Dai Igarashi
Denden as Yasuo Suzuki (Grandfather)
Akito Imai as Yosuke Igarashi (Father)
Akiko Oshidari as Akiko Igarashi (Mother)
Yûsuke Santamaria as Yukihiko Kawai

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⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️

The Nine-Year Vanish

Today we're looking at Living in Two Worlds by Japanese director Mipo O. My actual review is going to be pretty short, so I'm going to lead with some research I did on the movie and stick my review at the very end. When Mipo O's ravishing 2014 drama The Light Shines Only There won her international acclaim, including the Best Director prize at the Montreal World Film Festival, it heralded the arrival of a major talent. After her 2015 follow-up, Being Good, however, O seemingly vanished. For nine years, the director's chair stayed empty. This break was a conscious choice for Mipo O, who dedicated the time to raising her two young children. She's spoken candidly about it, describing the period as a "dark tunnel" where she questioned if she'd ever direct again. But this experience proved to be a creative crucible. She found that parenthood was incompatible with the traditional, all-consuming nature of filmmaking, forcing her to re-evaluate her process. Motherhood, she explained, instilled a new kind of discipline. "When raising children, you have to finish everything super quickly and efficiently," she noted. This mindset directly translated to her craft, making her "quite logical when it came to the edit." The result is a "quick and fast" editing style, evident in the film's sharp pacing and seamless time jumps.

Watch the clip below to see the kinds of challenges deaf parents face.

A Deeply Personal Connection

A second crucial motivator for Mipo O was her own identity as a third-generation Korean-Japanese. She has spoken about the lifelong experience of navigating between two cultures, a feeling of being "not perfectly Korean, or 100% Japanese," which made her question her identity a lot. This personal history created a profound connection when she encountered the story of a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults). The concept of living between the hearing and deaf worlds resonated deeply with her own "similar struggle". When she watched the 2021 American film CODA, she saw a reflection of her own experience in its depiction of a social minority caught between two realities. This personal resonance gave her a unique lens to view the story, transforming it from a subject of observation into a narrative she could understand from the inside out.

Watch the clip below where a young Dai tries to teach sign language and ends up being abused by a little bully.

Getting the Details Right & My Final Verdict

The final, decisive element fell into place when a producer presented her with the autobiographical essay by writer Dai Igarashi. Mipo O admitted her own ignorance at the time, confessing that she wasn't even familiar with the term "CODA". As she read Igarashi's work, she was struck by its powerful duality. While it illuminated the specific, often painful experiences of a CODA, she was simultaneously touched by what she called the "extremely universal emotions between a parent and child". To ground the film in this reality, the production team traveled with Igarashi to his hometown. They visited the actual locations of his youth—the fishing spots, the school routes, the local market—many of which were later used as filming locations. One of the most critical decisions Mipo O made was to cast deaf actors in the roles of the deaf parents. This was not a given. Her conviction was solidified during her extensive research interviewing many deaf individuals. From these conversations, she learned that many in the deaf community feel it is "weird" and inauthentic for hearing actors to portray deaf characters. One person's analogy struck her: having a hearing person play a deaf role felt as awkward as having a foreigner who speaks broken Japanese portray a native Japanese person. This made the decision non-negotiable, leading them to cast Akiko Oshidari (Japan's first deaf lead actress) and Akito Imai (a deaf actor and director).

So... Was It Worth the Wait? My review is just this: this is a boring movie. I disliked Ryo Yoshizawa's performance, and the movie seems like it was not well thought out in terms of storytelling. I did like the "quick and fast" passage of time; I found it original and a good interpretation of how time passes so quickly. The second part of the movie, when we revisit teenager Dai's days before leaving for Tokyo, gets a little better, and I did enjoy the conclusion. Other than that, it is a completely passable movie for a person who's not involved with the theme. I'd just recommend the Oscar-winning CODA (2021) for a good movie on the same subject. For deaf people, I guess this is a recommendable movie.

Watch the clip below for an interaction in a restaurant where Dai does something a little disrespectful.

Freddy's Final Rating

45

A well-intentioned but ultimately boring exploration of CODA life

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