Hana

Hana (花よりもなほ, 2006) is a Japanese historical comedy-drama from Hirokazu Kore-eda — watch it online on iFILM, starring Junichi Okada.

Young samurai Soza arrives in a rundown Edo neighbourhood to do one thing: find his father's killer. There's a complication — he's a poor swordsman. While he searches, he drifts into the neighbourhood's rhythms: tutoring children who can't read, mediating disputes between neighbours, quietly becoming part of the alley he was supposed to pass through. When he finally locates the man, the question shifts from whether he can take revenge to whether he actually wants to.

Kore-eda built his reputation on quiet films about fractured families — Nobody Knows, Still Walking, Shoplifters. This is his only period film, and it carries the same patience: what we owe each other versus what the rules demand. Stream Hana online on iFILM.