The VII Retrospective of Japanese Cinematography will start on April 3 at «Pioner» cinema. It is conducted by the Visual and performing arts centre «Art Corporation» with the support of the Embassy of Japan and JTI, general partner of the Retrospective. This year the Retrospective focuses on the movies of the leading modern Japanese directors, permanent participants and laureates of the major film festivals of the world in Berlin, Cannes and Venice. The film «Harmonium» directed by Koji Fukada will open the Japanese cinema week. As a pleasant surprise, the director himself will present his movie to the audience!
The owner of the hardware workshop Toshio Suzuoka is used to trust people. His family is shocked when he hires Yasaka, the former prisoner, and then lets him stay at Suzuoka’s house. One day Suzuoka’s wife sees the new employee teaching her daughter to play the harmonium, and the woman’s heart melts. But, does she jump to conclusions so fast?
Koji Fukada was born in 1980 in Tokyo. He studied in Taisho University in Tokyo, attended evening classes in filmmaking at The Film School of Tokyo. One of his teachers was Kiyoshi Kurosawa. In 2002, Fukada shot his first fiction film «The Chair». One of the first Fukada’s full-length films is «Hospitalité» (2010). This prize-winning movie was the participant of the International Film Festivals in Rotterdam, Tokyo and Bucheon and was shown in 2013 at the Retrospective of Japanese Cinematography in Minsk. This was the first time Koji Fukada visited Minsk and presented his movie to the Belarusian audience.
This year Koji Fukada’s movie «Harmonium» will be shown at the Retrospective. The film received the Prise of the Jury in the section «Un Certain Regard» of the
Cannes Film Festival in 2016. This is one of the most important sections of the Film Festival (after the main contest) which notes unique and innovative films.
«For me, family is an absurdity. A human being – who is an individual entity – meets someone, starts a relationship, becomes a parent, has kids, and lives with people as if it were the most natural thing in the world. But, if you think about it, it’s very strange. Why live with other people? Every population creates countries and believes in certain gods but, despite everything, they all end up fighting over some football score. Man lives in society by bringing people together that do not understand one another. The smallest version of this is a family», shares the director his thoughts about the main idea of the movie.
We are waiting for you from 3 to 8 April at the Retrospective of Japanese Cinematography in «Pioner» cinema!