Release Date

November, 14th, 2009

Running Time

104 min

Genre

Drama , Feature

Color

Color

Screening Format

35mm

Screen Size

European Vista (1:1.66)

Sound Processing

Dolby SR

[ Directed by ]

• KOBAYASHI Masahiro

[ Produced by ]

• KOBAYASHI Masahiro

[ Cast ]

• KOBAYASHI Yuto ── KAWAI Ryo
• EMOTO Tokio ── KIZAWA
• WATANABE Makiko ── KAWAI Nobuko
• KOBAYASHI Masahiro ── NOGUCHI Tatsuo

[ Staff ]

• KOBAYASHI Masahiro ── Screenplay
• ITO Kiyoshi ── Cinematography
• KANEKO Naoki ── Editor
• ITO Takao ── Music
• FUJII Isamu ── Lighting
• FUKUOKA Hiromi ── Recording

[ Production Company ]

Monkey Town Productions

[ Distributor (Japan) ]

T-JOY

[ Story ]

Poignant film portraying the struggles, financial and otherwise, of a son of a single-parent family, from Director Kobayashi Masahiro, who won the Grand prize at the Locarno International Film Festival for The Rebirth. The film offers a glimpse of the ruptures of modernday Japan as the economic divide widens as seen through the eyes of a young boy.
16-year-old Kawai Ryo (Kobayashi Yuto), works part-time at a convenience store to make ends meet while caring for his hospitalized mother Nobuko (Watanabe Makiko). With no end in sight to his mother's hospitalization and running out of money for food, Ryo begins taking home sandwiches and rice balls from work, trying to cover up his actions by falsifying the cash register tally. He is eventually found out by his boss, however, and is fired. When his mother dies and he is unable to pay for funeral services, Ryo sends her body out in the ocean. He then sets out for Tokyo to find his father, whose photographs taken together with him during his childhood had been his sole source of comfort during his mother's illness. What he finds waiting for him, however, is yet another painful reality.

[ Official Site ]

http://www.uplink.co.jp/wakaranai/

[ Film Festivals, Awards ]

2009 Locarno International Film Festival
2009 Vancouver International Film Festival
2009 Busan International Film Festival
2009 Bresilia International Film Festival
2009 Gijon International Film Festival
2010 International Film Festival Rotterdam
2010 Black Movie Film Festival
2010 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival
2010 Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival
2010 Barcelona Asian Film Festival

[ Contact (International) ]

For further contact details, please contact UNIJAPAN -> [ Contact ]