Nobuhiro Suwa
In her search for answers, 17-year-old Haru sets out on a long journey across the country to the town where, in 2011, the devastating tsunami swept away her brother and parents. This road trip takes the young woman, who is still haunted by her loss, from Hiroshima to Tokyo and Fukushima and all the way to Ōtsuchi, where her family home once stood. On the way she encounters other people, other stories, other lives and other losses. Landscapes and faces. The journey ends in the middle of a garden in full bloom among the scarred surroundings of her coastal hometown.. In it stands a telephone box which, even though it is no longer connected, is used to speak to those who cannot be reached any other way.
For the 30th anniversaire of FIDMarseille about thirty directors have done us the honor of offering us some very beautiful short films.
An aging movie actor who is preparing to shoot a death scene finds himself visited by the spirit of a dead, long-ago lover.
Storytelling Guy writes about his intimate relationships in his novels, even if it hurts those around him. Hotel Girl wants him to write about her, and lives with Night Shift Guy to provide material. Traveling Girl was in one of Storytelling Guy's novels, and has returned after a long absence.
A woman is waiting for a man. She deceives the man with her long hair hidden in a wig and jokes that she would go to Hiroshima.
When Yuki finds out that her parents are separating and she is moving to Japan with her mother, she and her best friend Nina devise ways to reunite the feuding adults.
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.
A Letter from Hiroshima explores themes of apology and remembrance. Suwa sends a letter to a Korean actress (Kim Ho-jung) he has worked with in the past requesting her assistance to write and direct a film about Hiroshima. Ho-jung arrives at her hotel and is told to explore the city and wait for Suwa. Initially confused, Ho-Jung soon finds the city mesmerizing and spends days learning about the tragic bombing and the effects that are still felt in the city today. With sparse dialogue and just a handful of characters, Suwa uses black and white images of Hiroshima to convey the scope of the tragedy. In one particularly poignant moment, the voice of a mother is heard lamenting the fact that she had scolded her daughter the day of the bombing. We next see Ho-jung crying in her hotel room, ignoring the ringing phone.
A French couple has been living in Lisbon for years, and they return to Paris for a friend's wedding. They announce to another friend they are having dinner with that they are going to split.
Tetsuro is living with his young girlfriend Aki in a pleasant house in Tokyo. They both spend a lot of time at their jobs. However their routine is upset when Tetsuro brings his 8 year old son Shun to live with them, while his ex-wife recovers from a car accident. Aki is annoyed because she was not asked, and she knows that she will have to do the bulk of the work in caring for him. This forces Aki to reevaluate her relationship, and decide whether she is to remain a modern working woman, or become a mother.
A visual documentary of Einstürzende Neubauten, the German underground band, by Japanese cult director Sogo Ishii, made during their 1985 tour of Japan. The band makes an elaborate and remarkably choreographed appearance in the ruins of an old ironworks (which was scheduled for demolition; footage of same was incorporated into the movie) and a brief appearance on stage.
Hanasareru Gang actually encapsulates three titles in one, for when written without Kanji characters, it can describe a gang that is “on everyone’s lips”, “flowery” or “separated from one other”. The film plays with these different meanings to tell the not strictly chronological story of a fun-loving young woman who joins up with a pair of petty criminals. After they steal a car containing a suitcase full of bank notes, they must go their separate ways. When the characters comment on the action in voiceover, ask how much more time the film is going to give them, quote from “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” or suddenly jump back and forth between tragedy and slapstick in tune with the music, one might think that Pierrot le fou got lost and ended up in Japan.
A boy and girl struggle to understand their place in 1980s Japan, retiring to copulate and probe each other for answers.
