The Miracle of Crybaby Shottan

Feature Slate

New York Premiere

Q&A with director Toshiaki Toyoda

Festival favorite Toshiaki Toyoda (I’M FLASH!) takes on the true story of shogi (Japanese chess) player Shoji “Shottan” Segawa. Despite consistent dedication, Shottan (Ryuhei Matsuda) fails to go professional by the time he’s 26, permanently forfeiting his chance according to the game’s strict rules. When he makes a name for himself as an amateur years later, however, he makes an unprecedented bid to go professional at 35 and forever changes the game. Informed by Toyoda’s personal shogi experience (he trained to go professional as an adolescent), this star-studded biopic of late-blooming self-realization is an inspirational study of perseverance against all odds.

2018. 127 min. Directed by Toshiaki Toyoda. With Ryuhei Matsuda, Yojiro Noda, Shota Sometani, Jun Kunimura.