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The Little House

Directed by Yôji Yamada

Japan • 2014 • 136 mins. • In Japanese

Showtimes & Past Screenings

When Takeshi’s unmarried great-aunt Taki passes away, he goes to her house with his family to help clean up her belongings. There, they discover a memoir that Taki had been writing, documenting her experiences as housemaid for the well-to-do Hirai family during World War II. Compelled to learn more about his great-aunt, Takeshi begins to read. As he does, he discovers the source of the regret and sadness that Taki had taken with her to the grave. “In the masterful hands of Yamada, this simple tale of family secrets and scandalous love triangles, adapted from a best-selling novel by Kyoko Nakamura, is a gorgeously art-directed melodrama that reveals a domestic side of nationalistic Japan rarely seen on screen.”—Japan Times.

Genres: Drama, Historical

Appears in: 38th Portland International Film Festival

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.