Installed at Tokyo For several years, Jay (Romain Duris) has been employed in a taxi company. While he is thinking of returning to France, he welcomes one of his compatriots, Jessica (Judith Chemla), separated from her Japanese companion, who is looking to see her son again. Jay calms her enthusiasm and explains to her that in Japan, no question of talking about parental abductionand that the police will not intervene on his behalf… How does Jay master the issue so well? Because, unfortunately for him, he has been experiencing the same frustration as Jessica for much longer – which is why he stayed in Tokyo, in the hope of seeing his daughter again.
It is an understatement to say that Guillaume Senez is tormented by fatherhood : in his first feature film, “Sooner”, he portrayed a couple of teenagers who were too young parents, in “Our battles”, he told the story of the dismay of a father abandoned by his depressed wife, and this time, he attack on the thorny issue of parental abduction. Far from signing a film with a demonstrative thesis, it stages an intimate feature filmcarried by the very convincing presence of Romain Duris. With modesty, in small progressive touches, Senez draws the portrait of this man in needwho perseveres in his quest in a city whose rules he has managed to assimilate, but where the clash of cultures remains painful. With “A Missing Part”, the Belgian filmmaker demonstratesa very good masteryand the film resonates with contained emotion.
Belgium
