You hurt someone and you didn't mean to. The not-meaning-to doesn't change the shape of what happened for them, which is the part you have been trying not to sit with directly, the part that surfaces in the small moments between one task and the next. So you keep things moving. Full schedule, full attention, the relentless forward motion of someone who cannot currently afford to stop. These films will not tell you it's fine. But they carry the question of what you do after you've done something you can't undo, and they carry it carefully.
With dreams of diving abroad, Tsuneo gets a job assisting Josee, an artist whose imagination takes her far beyond her wheelchair. But when the tide turns against them, they push each other to places they never thought possible, and inspire a love fit for a storybook.
It holds your attention at exactly the right level. Demanding enough that the loop cannot find a foothold, generous enough that it does not feel like work.
Full hands, quiet mind
Haruki secretly had feelings for Akihiko for years, but Akihiko was still in a relationship with his roommate, the violinist Ugetsu Murata. Haruki, Akihiko, and Ugetsu's love clashes and starts to move forward.
Full enough to keep the front of your brain occupied. The thing you are working around will still be there later, but later is not now.
Keeps the front occupied
All unemployed, Ki-taek's family takes peculiar interest in the wealthy and glamorous Parks for their livelihood until they get entangled in an unexpected incident.
The right kind of busy. This film puts something in your hands and keeps it there until you are ready to set it down.
Right level of demanding
A young girl had her voice magically taken away so that she would never hurt people with it, but her outlook changes when she encounters music and friendship. Will Naruse be able to convey the anthem of her heart?
Exactly what distraction is supposed to be: a world complete enough to be in, undemanding enough to rest inside.
The bridge
Full enough to keep the loop from finding you. Just.
Two 13-year-old boys spend an idyllic summer together, but their connection is put to the test when they become the subject of speculation at school.
It holds your attention at exactly the right level. Demanding enough that the loop cannot find a foothold, generous enough that it does not feel like work.
Full hands, quiet mind
The story of J. Robert Oppenheimer's role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II.
Full enough to keep the front of your brain occupied. The thing you are working around will still be there later, but later is not now.
Keeps the front occupied
During a dinner, a group of friends decide to share whatever message or phone call they will receive during the evening, with unforeseen consequences.
The right kind of busy. This film puts something in your hands and keeps it there until you are ready to set it down.
Right level of demanding
After running away from his negligent parents, committing a violent crime and being sentenced to five years in jail, a hardened, streetwise 12-year-old Lebanese boy sues his parents in protest of the life they have given him.
Exactly what distraction is supposed to be: a world complete enough to be in, undemanding enough to rest inside.
The bridge
Returning to Earth as an imitator, the legendary Mexican artist Pedro Infante must prove that he is no longer a womanizer to enter paradise.
It holds your attention at exactly the right level. Demanding enough that the loop cannot find a foothold, generous enough that it does not feel like work.
Full hands, quiet mind
A family dog - with a near-human soul and a philosopher's mind - evaluates his life through the lessons learned by his human owner, a race-car driver.
Full enough to keep the front of your brain occupied. The thing you are working around will still be there later, but later is not now.
Keeps the front occupied
The final part of the film adaption of the erotic romance novel Gabriel's Inferno written by an anonymous Canadian author under the pen name Sylvain Reynard.
The right kind of busy. This film puts something in your hands and keeps it there until you are ready to set it down.
Right level of demanding
Professor Gabriel Emerson finally learns the truth about Julia Mitchell's identity, but his realization comes a moment too late. Julia is done waiting for the well-respected Dante specialist to remember her and wants nothing more to do with him. Can Gabriel win back her heart bef
Exactly what distraction is supposed to be: a world complete enough to be in, undemanding enough to rest inside.
The bridge
Hands full, head somewhere else. That's the whole goal.