Director: Matsumoto Hitoshi
Script: Matsumoto Hitoshi
Cinematographer: Kondo Ryuto
Editing: Honda Yoshitaka
Sound: Okamoto Tatehiro
Music: Shimizu Yasuaki
Cast: Nomi Takaaki, Kumada Sea, Itao Itsuji, Emoto Tokyo, Ryo Rolly
Prod: Yoshimoto Creative Agency, Phantom Film
Distribution:
Urban distribution
2 rue Charles Renouvier
75 020 Paris
France
Tel: 0033 1 48 70 46 57
[email protected]
www.urbandistribution.fr
Year: 2011
Screening: 2020
DCP, Color, 103 min,
O.V. Japanese with French Subtitles
Kanjuro Nomi is a samurai without a sabre, rejected by all and wandering miserably along the highways with his daughter, since his refusal to fight. When he fell into the hands of a noble with eccentric inclinations, he was condemned to death, unless he managed to take up a final challenge, to bring a smile to the sad face of the young prince. Every morning, for thirty days, he thus puts on a different performance. For the first time, Matsumoto gets to grips with one of the most popular types of Japanese film but the one which also has the most codes, the samurai film, often subjected to new postmodern or neoclassical variations. Matsumoto remains faithful to his absurd humour and to his affection for a sketch structure, but he has decided to adopt the register of a children’s film, including a superb father/daughter relationship, both cruel and inverted, with even some melodrama, and a very moving end.
Creativity is sometimes a means of survival - as long as you continue to satisfy the powers that be and keep on seducing the public. A magnificent mirror image construction about the difficulty of being a comic, by the stand-up comedian Matsumoto Hitoshi.
Agat Film & Cie,
Alma Films, Depo Film
