A Film by Masahiro Kobayashi
HD – 16:9 – Color – Stereo – Japan

Director’s Statement
Making a movie in Karakuwa, Kesennuma city, in the area stricken by the March 11 disaster has great meaning for me.Because I had made three movies there in the past, and had even bought an old house and decided to live there one day.When I actually started making the movie in the disaster zone, however, I found it very stressful. It seemed to me that the very act of making a movie was wrong.It was the people living in the stricken area who taught my film crew the meaning of film making.They encouraged us saying, “Now is exactly the time when film-making has meaning.” In this movie I tried several experiments. The long 35-minute cut at the beginning is one of them. From then on, I tried to film each sequence in one cut as far as possible. I thought it might reflect in some way the atmosphere of the stricken area five months after the disaster. I’m very grateful to the three actresses who took on my challenging experiments without hesitation.

Synopsis
The love-hate relationship of three estranged sisters reunited during the earthquake disaster. Having failed to realize her dream as a butoh dancer in New York, eldest daughter Takako drifts back to her parents’ home in Karakuwa, Kesennuma city, Miyagi prefecture.She finds the house abandoned, however. Then a woman appears, taking Takako by surprise. It’s the second daughter, Nobuko. Nobuko is supposed to be married and living happily in Tokyo with her child. So why has she shown up at her parents’ place?Although their reunion is the first in 10 years, it does not exactly overflow with joy.Then the third daughter appears. Satomi, the one who should be guarding the house.With no work in her hometown, Satomi had found work in Kesennuma city but the earthquake had made her life even more precarious.Against the background of their hometown, three tough but fragile sisters reveal their thoughts, and regain the bonds of sisterhood and the will to live. It’s a cheer going out to all women living in the present age.

Crew:
Screenplay: Masahiro Kobayashi
Cinematographer: Koichi Nishikubo
Music: Masahiro Kobayashi
Lighting: Jun Saito
Sound Recordist: Yasushi Eguchi
Editor: Naoki Kaneko

Cast:
Takako: Makiko Watanabe
Nobuko: Yuko Nakamura
Satomi: Miho Fujima

Festivals:
International Film Festival Rotterdam
Jeonju International Film Festival
Japan Cuts New York
Osian’s Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema

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