A Film by Masahiro Kobayashi
HD – 2,35 – B&W part color – DTS – Japan – 2013
© MONKEY TOWN PRODUCTIONS

Director’s Statement
When I wrote this film’s screenplay, it felt as though I was writing a suicide note. Around the time of the March 11 tragedy, many Japanese people felt the constant pressure of an invisible something. Far from lessening over time, that unseen pressure has now become even more ominous.The movie is based on actual events that happened to a “certain Japanese family” in Tokyo in 2010.
It asks the question, What do we actually need to live? Before calling on the bonds and ties of relationships, I believe we have to ask ourselves this question repeatedly.
Masahiro kobayashi 2011

Synopsis
October, 2011. Fujio Murai returned to the old family home, a wooden house in Kanamachi, Tokyo, accompanied by his son Yoshio.On the day of the Northeast Japan earthquake, March 11, 2011, Fujio had been hospitalized and operated on for lung cancer. Before the second operation, however, Fujio had ignored the doctor’s instructions and left the hospital. The doctor told him that without the operation, Fujio would not survive another three months. Nevertheless, Fujio discharged himself from hospital. It was the anniversary of Fujio’s wife Yoshiko’s death.
The following day, Fujio used the tools of his trade – he had been a carpenter – and nailed shut the doors and windows to his room. Fujio declared that he would become a mummy and knelt in front of Yoshiko’s photograph.
Although Yoshio begged him to stop, Fujio completely ignored him.
The days passed one by one.  Scenes from the past appeared and disappeared in Fujio’s mind. The kind of joy, anger, humor and pathos experienced by ordinary people everywhere.
What was the reason for Fujio to choose suicide? And why would choose the cruelest way: death from starvation?
The story combines the illegal pension-claim incidents of 2010 and the Northeast Japan earthquake that hit during the long recession. The Murai family’s tragedy is one example of the tragedies of Japan’s poor.

Crew:
Screenplay: Masahiro Kobayashi
Cinematographer: Sumio Ooki
Lighting: Miyanobu Inori
Sound Recordist: Shin Fukuda
Editor: Naoki Kaneko

Cast:
Fujio: Tatsuya Nakadai
Yoshio: Kazuki Kitamura
Tomoko: Shinobu Terajima
Yoshiko: Akemi Omori

Festivals:
Busan International Film Festival
Bengalore International Film Festival  ★Guest of Honour for Director
Geneva Film Festival BLACK MOVIE
International Film Festival Rotterdam
Gøteborg International Film Festival
Vesoul Festival International des Cinemas d’Asie  ★International Jury’s Special Mention
Japan Cuts New York
Asian Film Festival
Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival
Japanese Film Festival
Indie World Film Festival
Warsaw Film Festival
Asia Pacific Screen Awards (Best Performance by an Actor Nominee Tatsuya Nakadai)

 Production / World Sales:
Monkey Town Productions
att: Naoko Kobayashi