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The Long Excuse
Movie

The Long Excuse

2016 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

A recently widowed writer whose wife died in a bus crash comes to terms with his grief—or lack of it—in caring for the children of a working man who also lost his wife in the same accident.

Overall Series Review

The Long Excuse is a Japanese character study focused on Sachio Kinugasa, a self-absorbed and pretentious celebrity novelist who cheats on his loyal wife and feels no genuine grief when she dies in a bus crash. His story begins when he finds himself performing an elaborate show of mourning for the media. His journey toward moral truth is sparked by forming an unlikely bond with Yoichi Omiya, a working-class truck driver and the genuinely devastated husband of his wife’s deceased friend. Sachio volunteers to care for Omiya’s two young children while the father works. The film is a raw, unblinking exploration of personal guilt, the performance of emotion, and a deeply flawed man’s slow, awkward path toward redemption through selfless action and the responsibilities of a traditional family unit. The core conflict is a universal moral one, pitting an individual’s selfish cynicism against the inherent value of family, sincerity, and human connection.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The narrative centers on universal themes of grief, guilt, and personal redemption, judging the characters based on their moral content and individual actions rather than immutable group characteristics. The casting is culturally authentic Japanese, and the plot contains no elements of intersectional politics, systemic oppression, or forced diversity.

Oikophobia1/10

The film is set in contemporary Japan, using the native social context (marriage, literary world, truck driving) to explore a personal story of loss and moral awakening. There is no hostility toward Japanese culture, no deconstruction of its heritage, and the story does not promote any outside culture as spiritually superior.

Feminism3/10

The primary male character is a self-absorbed, unfaithful jerk whose profound flaws drive the central conflict of the story. However, the narrative ultimately highlights the essential and complementary role of the deceased wives in maintaining the family unit, with the men struggling to fill the 'indispensable' void left by the mothers. The ending celebrates family and a man accepting responsibility, not a feminist critique of gender roles or anti-natalism.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative focuses exclusively on the traditional, heterosexual family unit, marriage, and parenting. There are no elements of alternative sexual ideology, centering of alternative sexualities, deconstruction of the nuclear family, or lecturing on gender theory.

Anti-Theism2/10

The core of the movie is the main character's quest for personal moral truth, moving from cynical, narcissistic self-interest to an acknowledgment of his failure and the value of selfless action. The moral framework is grounded in universal human guilt and finding a higher personal purpose through responsibility, without featuring any religious or anti-religious commentary.