A Pale View of Hills (12A) Film Review

The film has some great cinematography and the acting is uniformly good.

Carlie Newman March 31, 2026 1 minute read

Dir: Kei Ishikawa UK/ Japan/ Poland 2025, 123 mins.

Cast: Suzu Hirose, Fumi Nikaido, Yo Yoshida

Review by Carlie Newman

In English and Japanese with English sub-titles

The film is an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro‘s 1982 novel, ‘A pale view of hills’. It tells the story of Etsuko (Suzu Hirose in 1952 and Yo Yoshida in 1980s).

In England in the 1980s Etsuko reveals her past life in post-war Nagasaki, Japan to her daughter, Niki. She has an early marriage to a Japanese husband but later meets and marries a British man and goes to England with him, taking her daughter Keiko with her. She has a second daughter called Niki (Camilla Aiko). The move to England has a tragic effect on Keiko. Etsuko’s first daughter.

Etsuko’s close friend in Japan is Sachiko (Fumi Nikaido) who is desperate to go to America with her American boyfriend. The two women grow close when they realise they both pair of scars of the atomic bomb.

Niki is keen to hear all about her mother‘s firsthand experience of the terrible bombing of Nagasaki.

This adaptation of the novel is directed with sensitivity by Kei Ishikawa. The film has some great cinematography and the acting is uniformly good. The movie presents a moving view of the lasting effects of a horrific war.