Another View 2002 / Chicken Heart / Japan 2002
Three friends – Iwano, Maru and Sada – destroyed and exhausted by life, meet each evening at their favourite pub and try to assign some meaning to their lives. Occasionally they pick up women, but more often they are forced to deal with one ridiculous situation after another. Maybe now is the right moment for these good-hearted but incredibly unsuccessful nonconformists to settle down….
Three friends – Iwano, Maru and Sada – destroyed and exhausted by life, meet each evening at their favourite pub and try to assign some meaning to their lives. Twenty-year-old Iwano dreams of a career as a boxer but, because he’s too timid, he makes a living as a “live punch-bag.” For the right price, stressed-out businessmen can take out their aggressions on him. Iwano feels that he should do something with his life, but he has as yet been unable to muster the necessary strength. Maru, who is about thirty, has taken over the failing family business selling hats. When he adds men’s wigs and toupees to his product line, selling them by acting out little scenes, he discovers he has quite a talent for comedy. Fifty-year-old Sada is a social castaway. He’s fixing an old boat in order to fulfil his lifelong dream of sailing around the world. But a secret from the past torments him, one which he dare not even tell his pals. The three friends spend evenings at the pub, sometimes trying to pick up women, but more often they end up dealing with one ridiculous situation after another. Maybe now is the right moment for these good-hearted but incredibly unsuccessful nonconformists to settle down….
105 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Hiroshi Shimizu
/ Screenplay Hiroshi Shimizu
/ Dir. of Photography Hiroshi Takase
/ Music Keiichi Suzuki
/ Editor Tomoh Sanjo
/ Producer Masayuki Mori, Takio Yoshida
/ Production Bandai Visual, Tokyo FM, TV Tokyo and Office Kitano Inc.
/ Cast Hiroyuki Ikeuchi, Kiyoshiro Imawano, Suzuki Matsuo, Nobuyoshi Araki
Hiroshi Shimizu (b. 1964, Kyoto) graduated from Yokohama Film School, then started his career in film as Yusaku Matsuda’s assistant director. In 1993 he became a member of Takeshi Kitano’s crew for the shooting of Sonatine, and since then has been part of his production team. He debuted in film in 1998 with Ikinai, which received the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Locarno IFF in the same year, and the Critics’ Prize at the Pusan IFF in 1999. Chicken Heart (2002) is his second feature. Takeshi Kitano said of his pupil: “I take great pleasure in the fact that after starting as my first assistant he’s gone on to become an acclaimed director. I hope that he will no longer be introduced as Takeshi Kitano’s former assistant. Now each of us is just one of many directors worldwide who are concerned about only one thing – making films that will be remembered!”
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