Film Archive

A Far Shore

Crystal Globe Competition 2022 / Tooi tokoro / Japan 2022

An unadorned perspective on impoverished life in Okinawa. 17-year-old Aoi works as a nightclub hostess in order to earn rent money and to provide for her little boy and his lazy father, who has no qualms about hitting his wife. Yet how dark does reality have to get before it stifles the rays of hope that filter through?

Synopsis

An unadorned perspective on impoverished life in Okinawa, an island in southern Japan whose modern history was tainted by the bloody battle for the Pacific. 17-year-old Aoi works as a nightclub hostess in order to earn rent money and to provide for her little boy. She also supports her lazy husband Masaya, who has no qualms about giving her a few slaps, particularly after he loses his job. What chance does this young family have to scrape their way out of the social mire, where they were driven by poverty and the imprudence of youth? How dark does reality have to get before it stifles the rays of hope that filter through? An intimate story that presents a less glitzy picture of Japan than is customary, demonstrating that social inequality impacts all corners of the globe.

Martin Horyna

About the film

128 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Masaaki Kudo / Screenplay Masaaki Kudo, Mami Suzuki / Dir. of Photography Takayuki Sugimura / Music Masamichi Shigeno / Sound Keefar / Editor Chen Shih Ting, Masaaki Kudo / Art Director Ran Kobayashi / Producer Yuki Kitagawa / Production ALLEN Inc. / Coproduction THE FOOL Inc. / Cast Kotone Hanase, Yumemi Ishida / Sales Alpha Violet / Contact Hannah Farr