The Light Shines Only There

FEATURE SLATE

East Coast Premiere

This film about love on the fringes of society begins with former mountain quarry dynamiter Tatsuo (Go Ayano) wasting away in the seedy bars and the numbing clamor of pachinko parlors below. Meeting friendly young parolee Takuji (Masaki Suda), he’s invited for a meal at the family’s ramshackle home by the beach where he meets Takuji’s older sister Chinatsu (Chizuru Ikewaki). Initiating an intense romance amidst their alcoholism and prostitution, together they lick deeper wounds of guilt, dependence, and abuse. Mipo O’s revelatory film is set in Hakodate, a northern port city in Hokkaido where Yasushi Sato, author of the 1989 novel upon which it’s based, was born and raised.

Japan. 2014. 120 min. DCP, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Mipo O. With Go Ayano, Chizuru Ikewaki, Masaki Suda, Kazuya Takahashi, Hiroko Isayama.

18+ This film is unrated, but may only be viewed by persons 18 years of age and older.

Japan’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at 2015 Academy Awards, #1 of Kinema Junpo’s Best Japanese Films of 2014

“A fierce character study.” -Deborah Young, The Hollywood Reporter

Part of JAPAN CUTS 2015.

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