There you go, nice little reveal there, the English Subtitles surprisingly revealed to be included on this R2 Japanese DVD state that the given English title is 'Portrait of the Wind'. Nice, makes sense, clearer than the apparent literal translation of the title too. Director Taro Hyugaji's first film, some established cast members, most noteably Tadanobu Asano, and a very intimate small scale drama with mixed results.
The film contains a lot of events that are either great choices of individuality, or they're brief faults with the potential to either confuse or excite the viewer. Fascinating to watch, and likely to go largely unnoticed for various reasons, the film's certainly worth trying to catch - but it also offers up an expensive experience in this R2 Japanese DVD with English Subtitles on the main feature alone, and one that doesn't necessarily make an obvious case for value-for-money because of its relative obscurity and gentle approach.
I think you were just letting your personal preferemces run away with you, personally. ;) I never once felt the film ought to have got any darker - I felt it was plenty dark as it was, and that the ending was absolutely phenomenal - everything A History Of Violence ought to have been, IMO.
Not without fault - it was perhaps a little too wistful on occasion, and yes, quite possibly over-portentous, but a wonderful little film overall and one of my recent favourites. Asano and Chizuru Ikewaki for the win for damn sure. :)
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