While the majority of romance dramas are purposely engineered to be idealistic escapism from the humdrum reality of relationships, All Around Us is the exact opposite: an unflinching look at a marriage in its entirety, for better or worse. Writer/director Ryosuke Hashiguchi returns after a 7-year hiatus to offer up a story chronicling what initially seems to be a loveless relationship between two young, disinterested partners as they weather day-to-day storms in the first decade of their marriage. At the outset, Kanao (Lily Franky) is a free-wheeling shoe repairman with the unfortunate habit of flirting with his clients. His new wife, Shoko (Tae Kimura), is a bossy, Type-A personality who methodically schedules their sex nights with Xs on a calendar and zero interest in setting the mood. It would seem that these two have nothing in common and are destined to go their separate ways, but love—like life—is often full of surprises.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Kanao gets recruited into the rather interesting occupation of courtroom sketch artist, allowing him to sit in on some of Japan’s most high-profile cases. The courtroom scenes have a “ripped from the headlines” feel because they’re based on actual cases including child murder, an unrepentant school attacker, and even the notorious Aum Shinrikyo death cult behind the sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway. As a steady stream of malfunctioning yahoos bare their shattered souls in front of him day after day, Kanao looks on as a detached casual observer much like he does in his own home life.

Kanao and Shoko manage to conceive a child, but the film then abruptly flashes forward to a rather startling shot of a shrine to their dead baby daughter. It’s unclear what happened, but Shoko is obviously distraught and blames herself. Kanao’s aloofness becomes a problem as Shoko begins to agonize over their differences and the fact that she can never get a read on what he’s really thinking. That, coupled with her self-imposed guilt pushes her to the brink of mental breakdown, but Kanao’s easy-going demeanor and soothing assurances eventually help coax her out of the abyss.

Acting performances are nothing short of superb. Franky, author of the the best-selling autobiographical novel “Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad”, shines in his first starring role. His nonchalant, non-acting approach is perfectly suited to the character but he’s also able to convey the unspoken emotions that are bubbling just under the surface when necessary (comparisons to fellow super-mellow actor Tadanobu Asano are inevitable). Kimura, an acting veteran compared to her co-star, digs deep to deliver a realistic portrayal of a woman on the brink.

At times gloomy, at times uplifting, “All Around Us” is an incredibly intimate portrait of a marriage set against the backdrop of public scandal. It’s nice to see a relationship movie handled in such a mature way for once. Ultimately, having the story span 10 years was probably the only realistic way to handle it, and helped drive home the idea that these two flawed characters who probably had no business being married in the first place could actually endure the hard times, grow together, and come out better people on the other side. Ryosuke Hashiguchi once again proves he has a firm grasp on the human condition; here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another 7 years for his next film.

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Tags: akira emoto, all around us, hirofumi arai, ken mitsuishi, lily franky, megumi yokoyama, minori terada, mitsuko baisho, norito yashima, reiko kataoka, rie minemura, ryo kase, ryosuke hashiguchi, seiichi tanabe, susumu terajima, tae kimura, takashi yamanaka, tamae ando, yoichi nukumizu, yosuke saito, yuichi kimura