Sawako Decides

2010, 112 min., 35 mm, color, in Japanese with English subtitles. Directed by Yuya Ishii. With Hikari Mitsushima, Kotaro Shiga, Ryo Iwamatsu.

Co-presented with the New York Asian Film Festival

Yuya Ishii is the wunderkind of Japanese indie cinema, but in Sawako he abandons fancy art house conceits and makes a real movie about real people. Real losers, in fact. Sawako has been in Tokyo for five years, is on her fifth temp job and her fifth boyfriend. When her dad gets ill, she returns to her hometown and takes over his freshwater clam packing business–everyone’s dream job. An insanely deadpan ode to people like Sawako, who are pulled in unexpected directions and make the most of it. For her, as for most of us, we’re never going to be great. So why not stand up and proudly embrace doing your best?

Part of Japan Cuts: Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema

TICKETS
$12 / $8 Japan Society members, seniors & students

Buy Tickets Online or please call the Japan Society Box Office at (212) 715-1258, Mon. – Fri. 11 am – 6 pm, Weekends 11 am – 5 pm.