Archive of films Sea Watches / Umi wa miteita

Japan
2002, 129 min

Section: Another View
Year: 2003

The story of this film, scripted by famous Japanese director Akira Kurosawa, is set in the first half of the 19th century, in a small provincial coastal town. A district demarcated by red lanterns is inhabited by geisha girls, one of whom is the beautiful O-Shin, who longs for love and happiness.

Synopsis

Akira Kurosawa, this time as a screenwriter, returns to the Edo period (before 1868) and takes us to the small provincial town of Okabasho in the eastern part of Tokyo bay. Here, where long canals flow through the town, a district lined with red lanterns is separated from the residential area, inhabited by geisha girls who do not live here by choice but were forced here by poverty. Their numbers include the beautiful O-Shin who has fallen in love with a young samurai; she offers him shelter after he has escapes from a group of soldiers. Love and a house of ill-fame, however, do not go together, and O-Shin, who dreams of a wedding and an ordinary life at the side of her beloved, experiences bitter disappointment. As the individual seasons of the year change, so, too, does the ocean. Then one day the district hemming in the women becomes a true prison. A wild storm strikes the coast and water floods the houses up to their roofs. Destiny takes its course…

About the director

Kei Kumai (b. 1930, Nagano) is a Japanese director who worked as an independent filmmaker for the Nikkatsu film company for many years. After experience as an assistant director and screenwriter, he decided to try his hand at directing and debuted with the film Teigin Case. Since then he has directed a number of films, among them The Long Darkness, An Ocean to Cross, Luminous Moss, Deep River. He is a highly respected figure in Japanese film, he has a distinctive filming style and usually looks at social issues through the eyes of the victims of social penury. He was awarded two Silver Bears at the Berlinale for the films Sadankan No. 8 and The Sea and the Poison. He also won a Silver Lion at the Venice IFF for his film The Death of a Tea Master and the Jury Prize in Montreal for Deep River.

Contacts

This is that
435 West 19th Street, NYC 10011, New York
United States of America
Tel: +1 212 994 8455 ext 220
Fax: +1 212 989 1917
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.thisisthatwebsite.com; www.myspace.com/thisisthatcorp

Nikkatsu Corporation
3-28-12 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, 113 0033, Tokyo
Japan
Tel: +81 356 891 014
Fax: +81 356 891 042
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.nikkatsu.com

Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan Inc.
St. Luke´s Tower 36F - 8-1 Akashi-cho, Chuo-Ku, 104 85, Tokyo
Japan
Tel: +81 35 551 0823
Fax: +81 35 551 0837
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.spe.co.jp

About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Another View

Director:	Kei Kumai
Screenplay:	Akira Kurosawa
Dir. of Photography:	Kazuo Okuhara
Music:	Teizo Matsumura
Editor:	Osamu Inoue
Producer:	Naoko Sarukawa
Production:	Nikkatsu Corporation, co-production / koprodukce: Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan Inc.
Cast:	Misa Shimizu, Nagiko Tohno, Masatoshi Nagase, Hidetaka Yoshioka
Contact:	This is that, Nikkatsu Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan Inc.