Yoichi Higashi has accumulated a long list of honors in a four-decade career, including a Silver Bear at the 1996 Berlin Film Festival for his childhood drama "E no Naka no Boku no Mura (Village of Dreams)." But compared with certain other Japanese directors of his generation, his overseas profile is not high.
For one thing, Higashi has not been prolific, directing only 20 films, including his latest, "Yoi ga Sametara Uchi ni Kaero (Wandering Home)," a fictionalized biopic of an alcoholic photographer.
Another is that he is hard to categorize. "Village of Dreams" was in the international art-house tradition of using childhood to examine both basic human emotions and larger themes, such as discrimination against the burakumin (outcasts) in early postwar Japan. But what to make of 2003's "Watashi no Guranpa (My Grandpa, 2003," whose elderly ex-con hero (Bunta Sugawara) kicks young gangster ass? An entertaining film — but not arty in the least.