Languages Archives: Japanese

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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

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New Directors Program Patron

Robert and Penelope Steiner Family Foundation

With Support From

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A father looks proudly at his son in a children's playroom.

Like Father, Like Son (2013) Soshite chichi ni naru

  Kore-eda Hirokazu

  Japan     121 minutes

Synopsis

A couple learns that, due to a hospital mix-up years ago, they must welcome their unknown biological son — and bid farewell to the boy they’ve long loved.

  

 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

  •   Hijiri Taguchi, Kaoru Matsuzaki
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Mikiya Takimoto
  •   Masaharu Fukuyama, Machiko Ono, Yoko Maki
  •   2013

Sponsors

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A man stares and points a handgun straight into the camera lens.

Cloud

  Kiyoshi Kurosawa

  Japan     123 minutes

Synopsis

Kiyoshi Kurosawa has a gift for finding the uncanny in any situation. His latest film, Cloud, sees the Japanese genre master returning to the techno-paranoia of his 2001 classic Pulse, but with a twist: Here, Kurosawa is exploring the horror of buying something online, only to find out that it’s a useless piece of plastic junk. Ryosuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) makes his living peddling these knockoffs under the username “Ratel,” and is doing quite well for himself — that is, until an online community of embittered, unhappy customers uncover “Ratel’s” true identity and track him down IRL.

Cloud is an intriguingly bizarre entry into Kuroswa’s filmography, combining cosmic horror with an EC Comics-style morality tale and just a hint of Reservoir Dogs. An anti-capitalist action movie with a dark sense of humor and loads of bloody gunplay, it’s a warning to anyone who’s ever hidden behind the anonymity of the internet.

  

 Japanese with subtitles

Content Advisory

Screenings & Events

Media

Film Credits

  •   Yumi Arakawa, Yuki Nishimiya, Nobuhiro Iizuka
  •   Kiyoshi Kurosawa
  •   Koichi Takahashi
  •   Yasuyuki Sasaki
  •   Masaki Suda
  •   Masanari Nagayama, Kazuhiro Ohta, Masato Usui, Takuya Matsumoto, Junji Igarashi, Yasutaka Fuke, Yoshiharu Arai
  •   Nikkatsu, Django Film
  •   https://cloud-movie.com/

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An assorted group of Japanese men and women stand behind a camera, shooting a short film.

After Life (1998) Wandâfuru raifu

  Kore-eda Hirokazu

  Japan     119 minutes

Synopsis

A cast of characters waiting in limbo must decide which memory they want to preserve before moving on in this fantastical and poignant drama.

  

 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

  •   Yutaka Shigenobu, Shiho Sato, Masayuki Akieda
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Yutaka Yamasaki, Masayoshi Sukita
  •   Arata Iura, Erika Oda, Susumu Terajima, Takashi Naito, Kei Tani
  •   Yasuhiro Kasamatsu
  •   1998

Sponsors

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Two men sit in a car, one looking down at a map, and the other holding binoculars.

After the Storm (2016) Umi yori mo mada fukaku

  Kore-eda Hirokazu

  Japan     118 minutes

Synopsis

A deadbeat dad is trapped with his family waiting out a typhoon. There, the fractured clan reckons with their past as they look to an uncertain future.

  

 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

  •   Kaoru Matsuzaki
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Kore-eda Hirokazu
  •   Yutaka Yamasaki
  •   Hiroshi Abe, Yôko Maki, Taiyô Yoshizawa, Kirin Kiki
  •   Hanaregumi
  •   2016

Sponsors

Co-presented with

With support from

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