Akiko Ishida has flashes, but it wobbles

Akiko Ishida gives this role a little extra shape without making a big show of it. I bought the character pretty quickly, which is not always easy in this kind of film. The small reactions do a lot of the heavy lifting. There is a nice lived-in quality to it, nothing too forced. It is the kind of performance that quietly makes the movie sturdier. That is the part I kept thinking about after the movie ended.