A Film by Masahiro Kobayashi
35mm – 1,66 – Color – DolbySR – 104min – Japan
© MONKEY TOWN PRODUCTIONS

Director’s Statement
Each time I make a movie, I remember the feeling when I made my very first film.It’s the same with “Wakaranai” (I don’t know).In front of the new characters and the new story, my feelings alternate between excitement and unease.The fact that this was my first time producing a teenage movie also made me agitated.I wanted to make a movie in which today’s Japan would rise to the surface as seen from a boy’s point of view.I think I’ve been partially successful in the attempt.I’m very interested to learn how the audience will feel after the film ends. Just like the protagonist Antoine Doinel in “Les Quatre Cent Coups” (The 400 Blows), however, the film’s protagonist Ryo’s struggle with his already lost life has only just begun.

Synopsis
High-school student Ryo Kawai was 16. It happened during the summer vacation.Ryo lived with his mother in municipal housing with other low-income families. After his mother was hospitalized, Ryo stopped training with his soccer club and took a part-time job.He needed to pay his mother’s hospital bills and his own food costs.From just a few hours of part-time work, however, his pay wasn’t nearly enough. He could barely cover the rent.That’s when Ryo turned to crime.He cheated the cash register, and stole not money but food from the store. In that way, Ryo ate his daily wage.One day, his work colleague informed the manager about Ryo. The manager caught Ryo cheating the cash register and fired him. Then, a few days later, Ryo’s mother died.Ryo had no money to pay the hospital bills or his mother’s funeral expenses.In a hopeless position, Ryo smuggled his mother’s remains out of the hospital, placed them on a blue boat at his only safe haven, and buried her at sea.Then Ryo left his familiar apartment. It seemed he had severed his ties with everything… Ryo headed for his father’s place, rocked about on the night bus.Because his father was the only person he had ever relied on.But his father had already remarried and had a small child. Not only that, he had lost his job due to downsizing. Just like Ryo, his father spent every day in a hopeless depression.Ryo had finally succeeded in reuniting with his father, but, a far from happy reality awaited him there.

Crew:
Screenplay: Masahiro Kobayashi
Cinematographer: Kiyoshi Ito
Lighting: Isamu Fujii
Sound: Hiromi Fukuoka,Tatsuo Yokoyama
Editor: Naoki Kaneko

Cast:
Ryo: Yuto Kobayashi
Nobuko: Makiko Watanabe
Tatsuo:Masahiro Kobayashi
Kizawa:Tokio Emoto

Festivals:
Locarno International Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
Busan International Film Festival
Bresilia International Film Festival
Gijon International Film Festival
International Film Festival Rotterdam
Geneva Film Festival BLACK MOVIE
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival
Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival
Barcelona Asian Film Festival

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