Melancholic

Feature Slate

North American Premiere

SOLD OUT: A waitlist will begin at the Box Office one hour prior to the screening. Being on the waitlist does not guarantee admission.

Despite having graduated from the prestigious Tokyo University, Kazuhiko (Yoshitomo Isozaki) is unemployed and living with his parents without any plans for the future. Everything changes, however, when he takes up a job at a local bathhouse and discovers that it is used by the yakuza as a convenient place for executions and corpse disposal. Winner of the Best Director Award at the 2018 Tokyo International Film Festival: Japanese Cinema Splash, this auspicious debut from writer/director Seiji Tanaka features an ingenious script full of unexpected shifts in genre and tone, effortlessly swinging between black comedy, coming-of-age romance and crime thriller.

2018. 114 min. Directed by Seiji Tanaka. With Yoji Minagawa, Yoshitomo Isozaki, Mebuki Yoshida, Makoto Hada.

Best Director Award, 31st Tokyo International Film Festival: Japanese Cinema Splash
White Mulberry Award (Best First Film), 21st Udine Far East Film Festival

This film is unrated, but is not recommended for persons younger than 12 years of age without parental guidance due to graphic violence.