Film Countries Archives: Japan

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A male security guard holds up a traffic barrier pole next to a construction site. In the background are tall buildings.

I Was There, Part II [short film]

  Chi Jang Yin

  United States, Japan     10 minutes

Synopsis

Newly discovered archival footage shot in Hiroshima after the nuclear bomb is mixed with images of the city in the present moment. This work is a haunting meditation on war and memory.

This film screens as part of the Experimental Shorts: The Act of Seeing program.

 English with subtitles

Film Credits

  •   Chi Jang Yin
  •   Chi Jang Yin
  •   Chi Jang Yin
  •   Chi Jang Yin
  •   Chi Jang Yin
  •   Kevin Cagnolatti
  •   Chi Jang Yin
  •   Heavy Water

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Experimental Shorts: The Act of Seeing

  Experimental Shorts: The Act of Seeing

  Canada, Chile, Cuba, France, Japan, Portugal, United States     89 minutes

Synopsis

The seven short films in this program radically push towards new and singular forms of expression. Through the use of archival footage, historical recreation, and dreamlike narratives, these films grapple with the past and the future of cinema — and the world. Featuring works by Marisa Hoicka, Isadora Neves Marques, María Salafranca, Valentin Noujaïm, Chi Jang Yin, Alison McAlpine, and Kevin Jerome Everson.

Teen Girl Fantasy (Canada) is a poetic archival excavation of the complex cultural signals surrounding teen girlhood. In My Senses Are All I Have to Offer (As minhas sensações são tudo o que tenho para oferecer) (Portugal), Lourdes and her girlfriend Lana can communicate telepathically using “sensory pills.” Black Shadow (Negra sombra) (Cuba) is a delicate and deeply moving portrait of Maria, a griveing woman. In To Exist Under Permanent Suspicion (France), a woman has fantasies of burning the skyscraper in which she works. Newly discovered archival images of postwar Hiroshima mix with contemporary footage of the city in I Was There, Part II (U.S., Japan). In Perfectly a Strangeness (Canada, Chile) three donkeys wander an abandoned landscape and come upon an observatory. And Hazel (dual) (United States) is a dual-screen recreation of Eddie Hazel’s famous 10-minute guitar solo on the song “Maggot Brain” by Funkadelic.

 English, French, No Dialogue, Portuguese, Spanish 

Content Advisory

Screenings & Events

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A man in a tshirt and jeans sits on a stone wall with a blue sky behind him.

Super Happy Forever

  Kohei Igarashi

  France, Japan     94 minutes

Synopsis

Accompanied by his friend Miyata, a heartbroken Sano returns to Izu, the Japanese coastal resort where Sano fell in love with his wife, Nagi, five years prior. With the hotel set to shutter in the coming days, Sano checks in one last time and ponders the exhilarating pangs of his lost love. Adrift, he wanders the grounds, and his memories of Nagi begin to take hold.

Narratively playful and profoundly affecting, Super Happy Forever is an unconventional seaside romance. Extended flashback sequences blend memory with reality to create a moving portrait of a relationship’s beginnings while reflecting on its untimely end. A crackling chemistry between leads Hiroki Sano and Nairu Yamamoto combines with director Igarashi Kohei’s elegant visual style to create a beautiful ode to a love gained and lost.

  

 Japanese with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Makoto Oki, Yusaku Emoto, Martin Bertier, Damien Manivel
  •   Kohei Igarashi, Koichi Kubodera
  •   Keiko Okawa, Kohei Igarashi, Damien Manivel
  •   Wataru Takahashi
  •   Hiroki Sano, Yoshinori Miyata, Nairu Yamamoto, Hoang Nh Quynh
  •   Daigo Sakuragi
  •   Kohei Igarashi, Kenshi Otaka, Misaki Kawamura, Satoshi Takat, Go Kitahara, Takashi Omatsu
  •   MLD Films, NOBO LLC
  •   http://www.bacfilms.com/international/movies/super-happy-forever

Sponsors

International Competition Program Patron

Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum Family Foundation

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A closely knit, multigenrational family smile together

Shoplifters (2018) Manbiki kazoku

  Kore-eda Hirokazu

  Japan     121 minutes

Synopsis

A tight-knit unit of petty thieves and outsiders comes together to shelter an abandoned child, but an unforeseen incident threatens to tear apart their newfound family.

 Japanese with subtitles

Kore-eda Retrospective

headshot: Kore-eda HirokazuThis film is part of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival’s Kore-eda Hirokazu Tribute and Retrospective program.

Learn more about the Retrospective

Screenings & Events

Film Credits

  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu, Kaoru Matsuzaki
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Ryûto Kondô
  •   Sakura And, Lily Franky, Mayu Matsuoka, Kirin Kiki
  •   Haruomi Hosono
  •   2018

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Two young girls and two young boys sit on a bed. The oldest boy looks serious while the others are smiling.

Nobody Knows (2004) Daremo shiranai

  Kore-eda Hirokazu

  Japan     141 minutes

Synopsis

When their mother disappears, a young boy and his three siblings must figure out how to get by on their own in this at once heartfelt and heartbreaking drama. Shown on 35mm with Tribute

 Japanese with subtitles

Special Tribute Event

headshot: Kore-eda HirokazuThe screening of Nobody Knows will include a Tribute and Career Achievement Award presentation for director Kore-eda Hirokazu.

This film is part of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival’s Kore-eda Hirokazu Tribute and Retrospective program.

Learn more about the retrospective

Screenings & Events

Film Credits

  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Yutaka Yamasaki
  •   Yûya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimiza
  •   Titi Matsumura, Gonzalez Mikami
  •   2004

Sponsors

Co-presented with

With support from

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