‘Mentor’: A mordant exploration of guilt and absolution

Directors who work from their own original screenplays are a rare breed in Japanese cinema, and few have a voice as distinctive as Keisuke Yoshida. His films meld social realism with a mordant comic streak that can sometimes border on flippancy, making audiences giggle and squirm as he probes the contradictions of human behavior. As a writer, Yoshida can give the impression that he’s setting out without a clear destination in mind, letting the material lead the way.