Languages Archives: Japanese

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A closely knit, multigenrational family smile together

Shoplifters (2018) Manbiki kazoku

  Kore-eda Hirokazu

  Japan     121 minutes

Synopsis

A tight-knit unit of petty thieves and outsiders comes together to shelter an abandoned child, but an unforeseen incident threatens to tear apart their newfound family.

 Japanese with subtitles

Kore-eda Retrospective

headshot: Kore-eda HirokazuThis film is part of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival’s Kore-eda Hirokazu Tribute and Retrospective program.

Learn more about the Retrospective

Screenings & Events

Film Credits

  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu, Kaoru Matsuzaki
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Ryûto Kondô
  •   Sakura And, Lily Franky, Mayu Matsuoka, Kirin Kiki
  •   Haruomi Hosono
  •   2018

Sponsors

Co-presented with

With support from

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A man in a tshirt and jeans sits on a stone wall with a blue sky behind him.

Super Happy Forever

  Kohei Igarashi

  France, Japan     94 minutes

Synopsis

Accompanied by his friend Miyata, a heartbroken Sano returns to Izu, the Japanese coastal resort where Sano fell in love with his wife, Nagi, five years prior. With the hotel set to shutter in the coming days, Sano checks in one last time and ponders the exhilarating pangs of his lost love. Adrift, he wanders the grounds, and his memories of Nagi begin to take hold.

Narratively playful and profoundly affecting, Super Happy Forever is an unconventional seaside romance. Extended flashback sequences blend memory with reality to create a moving portrait of a relationship’s beginnings while reflecting on its untimely end. A crackling chemistry between leads Hiroki Sano and Nairu Yamamoto combines with director Igarashi Kohei’s elegant visual style to create a beautiful ode to a love gained and lost.

  

 Japanese with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Makoto Oki, Yusaku Emoto, Martin Bertier, Damien Manivel
  •   Kohei Igarashi, Koichi Kubodera
  •   Keiko Okawa, Kohei Igarashi, Damien Manivel
  •   Wataru Takahashi
  •   Hiroki Sano, Yoshinori Miyata, Nairu Yamamoto, Hoang Nh Quynh
  •   Daigo Sakuragi
  •   Kohei Igarashi, Kenshi Otaka, Misaki Kawamura, Satoshi Takat, Go Kitahara, Takashi Omatsu
  •   MLD Films, NOBO LLC
  •   http://www.bacfilms.com/international/movies/super-happy-forever

Sponsors

International Competition Program Patron

Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum Family Foundation

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A man and two kids sit on ice, bundled up in their winter gear and wearing ice skates. They look out together.

My Sunshine

  Hiroshi Okuyama

  Japan, France     90 minutes

Synopsis

On the snowy island of Hokkaido, young Takuya isn’t thrilled about being forced to play ice hockey at school. On the ice, he becomes fascinated with Sakura, a talented figure skater training for an upcoming competition. Her coach sees potential — and perhaps a bit of his younger self — in Takuya, and proposes that he train the two together as an ice dancing duo. As Takuya improves, the two children form a tentative yet harmonious bond, and their skating brings inspiration to all three of them. But as the days get longer, the reality of life outside the rink begins to slip in and melt the harmony between the skating pair and their trainer.

Bathed in soft pastel light and a gentle disposition, My Sunshine explores the questions of burgeoning youth with exquisite subtlety and dreamlike wonder.

 Japanese with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Toshikazu Nishigaya, Yuki Nishimiya, Masa Sawada, Anne Pernod
  •   Hiroshi Okuyama
  •   Tina Baz, Hiroshi Okuyama
  •   Hiroshi Okuyama
  •   Sōsuke Ikematsu, Keitatsu Koshiyama, Kiara Nakanishi
  •   Ryosei Sato
  •   Shintaro Hori
  •   Asahi Shimbun, Comme des Cinémas, Tokyo Theatres
  •   https://filmmovement.com/my-sunshine

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Two young girls and two young boys sit on a bed. The oldest boy looks serious while the others are smiling.

Nobody Knows (2004) Daremo shiranai

  Kore-eda Hirokazu

  Japan     141 minutes

Synopsis

When their mother disappears, a young boy and his three siblings must figure out how to get by on their own in this at once heartfelt and heartbreaking drama. Shown on 35mm with Tribute

 Japanese with subtitles

Special Tribute Event

headshot: Kore-eda HirokazuThe screening of Nobody Knows will include a Tribute and Career Achievement Award presentation for director Kore-eda Hirokazu.

This film is part of the 60th Chicago International Film Festival’s Kore-eda Hirokazu Tribute and Retrospective program.

Learn more about the retrospective

Screenings & Events

Film Credits

  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Yutaka Yamasaki
  •   Yûya Yagira, Ayu Kitaura, Hiei Kimura, Momoko Shimiza
  •   Titi Matsumura, Gonzalez Mikami
  •   2004

Sponsors

Co-presented with

With support from

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A woman stands with a shell to her ear.

Hanami

  Denise Fernandes

  Switzerland, Portugal, Cape Verde     96 minutes

Synopsis

Nana is a young girl living on a remote volcanic island that much of her family, including her mother, have long since fled. When Nana falls ill to a strange fever, she is sent to the foot of the island’s volcano for treatment by the local healer. There, she encounters a world steeped in magical realism, suspended between dream and reality.

Hanami is a stunning, surreal look at family and community in Cabo Verde, an island nation whose diaspora far outnumbers its residents. Exploring the necessity of migration and the void it leaves behind, filmmaker Denise Fernandes paints a sweeping portrait of the inherited echoes between daughters and mothers — all set against the otherworldly landscape of Ilha do Fogo, Cabo Verde and its volcano.

 Cape Verdean Creole, Japanese, French, English with subtitles

Screenings & Events

Film Credits

  •   Eugenia Mumenthaler, David Epiney, Luís Urbano, Sandro Aguilar
  •   Denise Fernandes, Telmo Churro
  •   Selin Dettwiler
  •   Alana Mejía González
  •   Sanaya Andrade, Daílma Mendes, Alice Da Luz, Nha Nha Rodrigues, Yuta Nakano
  •   Rahel Zimmermann
  •   Alina film, O Som e a Fúria
  •   https://www.alinafilm.com/hanami-eng

Sponsors

Black Perspectives Program Sponsor

Logo: AllState

New Directors Program Patron

Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation

With Support From

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