We, the working class, have always been victims to progress. Joe Odagiri’s They Say Nothing Stays The Same is the story of Toichi (Akira Emoto), an elderly ferryman, who finds his contentment in life taking his customers up and down the river in a remote Meiji-era community in Japan. Every day, he takes locals, goods, and livestock in his small rowboat, and Toichi is the only one providing this service.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t make a lot of money doing it and is teased by the local children calling him a “river hobo.” To compound the problem, off in the distance is the pounding noise of bridge construction that will put him out of business once it’s completed.
One night while on the river, Toichi bumps into a body floating in the river. Thinking it’s a dead girl’s body, Toichi discovers she (Ririka Kawashima) is still alive and takes her back to his house/shack and nurses her back to health. Toichi is then haunted by the spirit of a mysterious woman as an omen of things to come.
They Say Nothing Stays The Same is about the waning days of Toichi’s business and his soon-to-be-extinct way of life. Toichi provides a service to make money to survive. He often offers rides to the locals as barter for food and goods. Much of the film is about the diverse people that Toichi serves. His passengers include businessmen, hunters, a woman who was sold to servitude by her family, and a colorful cast of characters attending the annual festival.
“…off in the distance is the pounding noise of bridge construction that will put him out of business…”
Every day Toichi does his job and keeps his head down. His perspective changes after he rescues the girl. Toichi overhears his passengers talking about the mass murder of a family and how one of the daughters has gone missing. Toichi realizes who the girl is and decides to protect her. Never a parent, he soon discovers the girl’s trauma is more than he is equipped to handle as he struggles to appear trustworthy to the girl.
They Say Nothing Stays The Same is Toichi’s journey and is told solely from his perspective. Toichi is forced to evaluate the person he is. The villagers empathize with the fact that he’s about to lose his business, but they sure want that bridge. Toichi also lives on the outskirts of the village, and as much as he serves them, he is not a part of them.
As indicated by the title, this is also a moral tale about progress and the idea that as fast as technology and innovation advance, we are slowly losing the personal, human touch…insert commentary on social media here. There was a time we knew everyone in our tribe and village, and now we are crowded and isolated more than ever.
They Say Nothing Stays The Same is a slow, peaceful, and reflective film. It all takes place on a beautiful river in an isolated valley. Each frame is a piece of art and draws us back to when life was simple, slow, and we wanted for very little. Writer/director Joe Odagiri’s film is a story you want to bathe in and then sit and reflect on once it’s over.
"…a story you want to bathe in and then sit and reflect on once it's over."
