Being Natural

Feature Slate

U.S. Premiere

Q&A with director Tadashi Nagayama and stars Yota Kawase and Natsuki Mieda

Kindhearted Taka (Yota Kawase) idly passes time playing bongos under the clear country sky and grilling meat with his local friends. However, his life of simple pleasures is threatened with the arrival of the Kurihara family—Tokyoites who fled the city in search of the “natural life” and become intent on converting Taka’s traditional thatched roof house into a quaint cafe that serves organic food. Casting urban consumption of rural culture as a malevolent force expunging unwanted human elements and veering into xenophobic violence, Tadashi Nagayama’s comedic follow-up to Journey of the Tortoise (2017) swirls toward a wild genre-bending conclusion.

2018. 96 min. Directed by Tadashi Nagayama. With Yota Kawase, Shoichiro Tanigawa, Tadahiro Tsuru, Kanji Tsuda, Natsuki Mieda.