Kino Iluzjon Filmoteki Narodowej

19.02.2015

Review of the new Japanese cinema: „Unknown countenances of Japan”, is a unique opportunity to watch the films not shown in Poland so far. Every year the Japan Foundation prepares a package of films to screen in a few European countries. These are five feature films of five different directors, shot in different styles and touching various themes. All of them however, are united by one important element: they portray contemporary Japanese society (with the focus on the youth) and the dynamism of human relations, they show Japan of the economic boom of the eighties of XX century, the individual and the society in the face of tragedies such as natural disasters of the recent years. One of the movies of the review is the arwardwinning movie „The Kirishima Thing”, then „The Story of Yonosuke” – about a naive and truly optimistic teenager from provincial Japan, who has to manage somehow in the overcrowded Tokio, a cosy „About the Pink Sky”, „Casting Blossoms to the Sky” and a catastrophic picture „Reunion”.

SCREENING SCHEDULE (Stolica room)

The Kirishima Thing 11.03; 20.00 hrs
Reunion 12.03; 20.00 hrs
About the Pink Sky 13.03; 20.00 hrs
Casting Blossoms to the Sky 14.03; 19.45 hrs
The story of Yonosuke 15.03; 19.45 hrs

All screenings in the original version with Polish and English subtitles.

Tickets – PLN 12,- reduced, PLN 14,- normal, available in the box Office.

Reservations:

Tel.: 22 462 72 60; iluzjon.rezerwacje@fn.org.pl

SUMMARIES OF THE FILMS:

The Kirishima Thing (Kirishima bukatsu yamerutteyo),103’, Japan 2012
Dir.: Daihachi Yoshida, screenplay: D.Yochida, Kohei Kiyasu, camera: Ryuoto Kondo, cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Ai Hashimoto, Masahiro Higashide, Kurami Shimizu, Mizuki Yamamoto, Mayu Matsuoka, Motoki Ochiai, Kodai Asaka

Just an ordinary Friday afternoon in one of Japanese high schools. Some students go to sports trainings, some to faculties and there is group who stays just to talk. Suddenly a news spreads that Kirishima, a volleyball star, decides to quit. He hasn’t shown up at the training class and even his girlfriend doesn’t know where he might be. The news sparkles the chain of events that enable us to get the insight into specific relations between students and teachers, into the school hierarchy and also let us have a broader look onto the school life in Japan.

The structure of the film is interesting too: each situation is presented from several perspectives.

„The Kirishima Thing” is an adaptation of a debut novel of Ryu Asai titled „Kirishima bukatsu yamerutteyo”, awarded in 2009 by Shosetsu Subaru New Writer’s Award. The director Daihachi Yoshida is a winner of many awards in Japan and his feature debut „Funuke Show Some Love, You Losers!” was presented at the 60. International Film Festival in Cannes.

Reunion (Itai: asu e no tokakan),105’, Japan 2013
Dir.: and screenplay: Ryoichi Kimizuka, Naoki Kayano, cast: Toshiyuki Nishida, Mirai Seida, Ikki Sawamura, Wakana Sakai, Shino Sano, Koichi Sato, Toshiro Yanagiba

March 11, 2011 is a day that changed a lot in Japan. A great natural disaster – an earthquake and tsunami stroke the country and took almost nineteen thousand casualties. Chaos broke out in Kamaishi and in many other cities of north-eastern Japan. Thousands of bodies collected in a makeshift mortuary made in a school bulding had to be identified and handed over to families. Doctor, policemen and social workers worked tirelessly under hard conditions. The task was the more difficult due to the fact that they knew personally or even were friends with most of the casualties. Tsuneo Aiba, a retired owner of the funeral parlour, joined the team as a volunteer. His unusual attitude – gentleness towards the dead, compassion and understanding for the families – was very supportive for many of those who survived, and was the source of courage and strenght for them. „Reunion” is a recording of hard work and sacrifice, of moments of breakdown and personal fight of those whose purpose was to provide each killed person a decent funeral and soothing and comfort to those who survived

This poignant and touching movie is a requiem to the dead and a tribute to those, who – facing the tragedy – brought help to people in need. The movie is based on a documentary by Kota Ishii, a journalist and writer , who witnessed the disaster of 2011.

About the Pink Sky (Momoiro sora o)113’, Japan 2011
Dir., screenplay and camera: Keiichi Kobayashi, cast: Ai Kieda, Ena Kosino, Reiko Fujiwara, Tsubasa Takayama, Hakushu Togetsuan

Izumi, a high school student finds a wallet with a large sum of cash and a student ID in the street. She lends some of the money to her coleague who got into financial trouble. At the prompting of her friends she decides to give the wallet back. This way she gets in touch with a well-to –do student, who doesn’t want to accept the found money. Instead, he orders the girls to start publishing and distributing in a hospital of the newsletter that would bring only good news. All that is a food for thought for Izumi, provoking her to reflect seriously on her life.

„About the Pink Sky” is a small, monochromatic and visually interesting movie, written, directed and shot by the same person Keiichi Kobayashi. It portrays mutual relations of the protagonists with a subtle humour. Each character has its own eccentricities or problems: Izumi assesses the articles in the daily press, Hatsumi keeps changing her names, Kaoru tackles with family troubles and Sato seems to behave enigmatically and doesn’t explain his motives.

The film won Japanese Eyes: Best Picture Award at the 24. Tokyo International Film Festival and Grand Prix at the 50. International Film Festival in Gijon in Spain. It was the only Japanese movie presented at Sundance film Festival in 2012.

Casting Blossoms to the Sky (Kono sora no hana: Nagaoka hanabi monogatari)160’, Japan 2012
Dir.: Nobuhiko Obayashi, screenplay: N. Obayashi, Koji Hasegawa, camera: Katsuhiro Kato, Hisaki Sanbongi, cast: Yasuko Matsuyuki, Masahiro Takashima, Natsuki Harada, Minami Inomata

Reiko Endo, journalist of a local newspaper of Kiusiu, arrives at Nagaoki (prefecture Niigata), where her former partner, Kenichi Katayama lives. During her journey Reiko discovers not only the beauty of the city and its surroandings but also a traumatic war history and the tragedy of a great earthquake of 2004. This tough past is a pretext to organize a yearly show of fireworks, devoted to those who died and meant as a peace manifesto. „Casting Blossoms to the Sky” is not a feature movie nor a documentary one. It rather constitutes a kind of film essay that aquaints the viewer with ins and outs of contemporary Japanese history. The director, Nobuhiko Obayashi, renowned and awarded in Japan and abroad, decided to shoot the movie after the trauma of the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.

The music was composed by Joe Hisaishi, one of the most popular musicians in Japan, autor of the soundtracts of the movies of Takeshi Kitano or Hayao Miyzaki.

The Story of Yonosuke ( Yokomichi Yonosuke)160’, Japan 2012
Dir.:Shuichi Okita, screenplay: Shino Maeda, camera: Ryuo Kondo, cast: Kengo Kora, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Ayumi Ito, Sosuke Ikematsu, Go Alano

Tokyo, 1987. Eighteen years old Yonosuke Yokomichi leaves his hometown to study. He is a very naive, straightforward, trustful and optimistic guy. And, though he is not very good at understanding social conventions and can’t fit sometimes, his overpresent smile wins him friends – a straightforward Ippei Kuramochi, a joyful Yui Akutsu and an introvert Yusuke Kato. Meanwhile Shoko, an eccentric daughter of a wealthy businessman, gets her mind on him. However, Yonosuke is under the spell of a mysterious and older than him Chiharu. Paralelly to the story of the student times, the director portrays the stories of Yonosuke’s friends sixteen years later, when they recall Yonosuke and what he had brought into their lives.

Amusing but also moving film is a screen adaptation of a novel of Shuichi Yoshida, a very popular and prizewinning autor in Japan. It is not merely a story of becoming adult but also a vivid and colourful Picture of Japan of the eighties of XX century.