Release Date

October, 12th, 2002

Running Time

113 min

Genre

Feature

Color

Color

Screening Format

-

Screen Size

-

Sound Processing

-

[ Directed by ]

• KITANO Takeshi

[ Produced by ]

• MORI Masayuki
• YOSHIDA Takio

[ Cast ]

• KANNO Miho ── Sawako
• NISHIJIMA Hidetoshi ── Matsumoto
• MIHASHI Tatsuya ── The Yakuza Boss

[ Staff ]

• KITANO Takeshi ── Screenplay
• YANAGIJIMA Katsumi ── Cinematography
• HISAISHI Joe ── Music

[ Production Company ]

BANDAI VISUAL, Tokyo FM Broadcasting, TV TOKYO, OFFICE KITANO

[ Story ]

The latest film by Kitano Takeshi. Using Chikamatsu Monzaemon's play, 'The Courier of Hell', as its motif, the film depicts the sad journey of a man and a woman, who, like so-called "connected beggars", are linked by a red rope as they walk along. Their story is interposed with two other love stories. Matsumoto (Nishijima Hidetoshi) and Sawako (Kanno Miho) were once a couple envied by other people. The two were even engaged to be married, but Matsumoto received a proposal to marry the company president's daughter, and broke up with Sawako. After a failed suicide attempt, she becomes insane and loses all memory of the past. On the day of the wedding ceremony, Matsumoto learns of this, slips out of the ceremony, and takes Sawako away from the hospital. With a red rope, he connects himself to Sawako, who tends to wander off when let out of sight. The two abandon their car, and start walking with no place to go, passing all kinds of people on the way while the seasons are changing. When winter sets in and the ground is covered in snow, the two slip and fall from a cliff. Their journey ends when the rope that connects them gets caught by a tree branch halfway down the cliff, leaving the two dangling in mid-air.

[ Contact (International) ]

OFFICE KITANO INC.
Film Production Division
5F, 5-4-14 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052
Rep: MORI Masayuki
Attn: NAKAHASHI Aya, NAKANO Junichi
tel: +81 3 5572 7099
fax: +81 3 3589 0667
http://www.office-kitano.co.jp