Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi • 2014 • Japan
Starring Toru Shinagawa, Takako Tokiwa, Yumi Adachi
In his follow-up to CASTING BLOSSOMS TO THE SKY, Nobuhiko Obayashi continues to explore themes of lost love, memory, war, and art. At 2:46 PM on March 11, 2013, Mitsuo Suzuki (Toru Shinagawa) takes his last breath at the ripe age of ninety-two. As the patriarch’s far-flung family gathers to make preparations for his passing, a mysterious and unknown woman (Takako Tokiwa) appears among them. Together, they begin to unravel the secret history of Mitsuo’s long life, including shocking tales of war in Sakhalin (an island in the Japanese archipelago that is now a part of Russia). Ruthlessly fragmenting scenes and setting a furious pace with one experimental technique following another, Obayashi’s breathless film breaks down the barriers between past and present, reality and illusion, and even self and other, all in order to create an emotionally profound experience of loss and hope.
Up Next in 21st Century Cinema
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It’s Raining Frogs Outside
Directed by Maria Estela Paiso • 2021 • Philippines
Starring Alyana CabralAs the apocalypse looms, a young Filipino woman is forced to return to her childhood home in the province of Zambales. There, as frogs rain down from the sky, she confronts traumatic memories that condense into a surreal ...
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No Data Plan
Directed by Miko Revereza • 2019 • United States
Having lived as an undocumented person in the United States for over twenty years, Filipino American filmmaker Miko Revereza sets out on a three day journey by train from Los Angeles to New York—an anxious odyssey through a succession of transit z...
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Wisdom Gone Wild
Directed by Rea Tajiri • 2022 • United States
Starring Rose Noda, Rea TajiriIn this moving and original reflection on mortality and transformation, Rea Tajiri partners with her mother, Rose Tajiri Noda, to create a film about the final sixteen years of her life as a person living with dementia...
