<Odayaka> is the latest in a long line of 3.11 films, but it may be among the first to deal with the psychological impact of the disaster on average Japanese on a day-to-day basis. In a small Tokyo apartment block, neighbors Saeko and Yukako, become anxious about everything since the quake. Saeko, whose husband has requested a divorce, is terrified her daughter Kiyomi will be exposed to radioactivity, and Yukako keeps nagging her husband to move for the same reason. The women’s reactions border on nervous breakdown. director Uchida Nobuteru has a different perspective on the people who would alienate Saeko and Yukako, rooted in the question of why some of us act as if everything is normal, and as if we saw nothing. He wonders why others don’t scream, cry, or express their anxiety the way Saeko and Yukako do, and why people wouldn’t support Saeko and Yukako. In this way <Odayaka> reveals the dark shadow of Japanese society, the side that demands collective silence after a catastrophic event like 3.11. (KIM Ji-Seok)