Kabei Our Mother [J-drama] (Sayuri Yoshinaga, Tadanobu Asano, Mirai Shida)
Movie: Kabei - Our Mother | Kaabee | 母べえ
Release Date : January 28, 2008
Country : Japan
Director : Yoji Yamada
Starring : Sayuri Yoshinaga, Tadanobu Asano
Runtime : 133 min.
Competing at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival and one of the more highly anticipated films from Japan this year is Yoji Yamada’s “Kabei - Our Mother”. Yoji Yamada’s prolific career (even landing in the Guinness World Records for his Tora-san series) has seen a particular uptick in international recognition with his trilogy of Samurai films “Love and Honor,” “The Hidden Blade,” and “The Twilight Samurai.”
With his new film “Kabei - Our Mother” the movie is a distinct period piece set in the 1940s. Japan has seen a rebirth of sorts for period pieces set in the 40’s-60’s, thanks in large part to the popularity of the “Always - Sunset on Third Street” films. While “Always - Sunsent on Third Street” wallows in nostalgia and feel good moments from that era, “Kabei - Our Mother” will focus on the darker times of Tokyo during the 1940s. Yoji Yamada said this about his new film “You can say this film is a period drama, but in a sense, this is more so a historical investigation. The staff has been studying very hard. I would like to make this film with homage to all of the tender mothers who held her family tight in her thin but strong arms and lived through the hard times.”
The film’s distributor Shochiku describes the film as “Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and bring up her two daughters with the support of Shigeru’s sister Hisako and Shigeru’s ex-student Yamazaki, but her husband does not return. WWII breaks out and casts dark shadows on the entire country, but Kayo still tries to keep her cheerful determination, and sustain the family with her love. This is an emotional drama of a mother and an eternal message for peace.”
The film stars Sayuri Yoshinaga and features a supporting cast of Tadanobu Asano, Miku Sato, Keiko Toda, and Shofukutei Tsurubei. “Kabei - Our Mother” will premiere in Japan on January 28 and play at the Berlin Film Festival (Feb. 7th - 17th).
Official Film Website: http://www.kaabee.jp/
Cast:
Sayuri Yoshinaga - Kayo Nogami
Tadanobu Asano - Yamazaki Toru
Miku Sato - Teruyo Nogami
Keiko Toda - Teruyo Nogami - adult
Mirai Shida - Hatsuko Nogami
Shofukutei Tsurubei - Senkichi Fujioka
Mitsugoro Bando
Rei Dan
Denden
Mitsuru Fukikoshi
Tokie Hidari
Koen Kondo
Umenosuke Nakamura
Hideji Otaki
Takashi Sasano
Mizuho Suzuki
Sad vacation [J-Movie] (Tadanobu Asano, Aoi Miyazaki, Joe Odagiri)
Directed by Shinji Aoyama
Produced by Naoki Kai
Written by Shinji Aoyama
Music by Hiroyuki Nagashima
Cinematography Masaki Tamura
Editing by Yuji Oshige
Running time 136 min.
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Cast
Tadanobu Asano
Eri Ishida
Yuka Itaya
Ken Mitsuishi
Aoi Miyazaki
Katsuo Nakamura
Joe Odagiri
Kyusaku Shimada
Maho Toyota
Based on renowned director Aoyama Shinji’s own novel, Sad Vacation is a slow-brewing, stylishly lensed meditation on loneliness, anger, and reconciliation. Like Aoyama’s previous films Eureka and Helpless, Sad Vacation is set in the southern city of Kitakyushu, exploring the light and dark sides of human nature through the lives of troubled marginal characters trying to escape from themselves. Aoyama teams up again with acclaimed actor Asano Tadanobu and NANA star Miyazaki Aoi, who previously starred in Helpless and Eureka, respectively. The film also co-stars actress Ishida Eri (Hibi) and popular actor Odagiri Joe (Tokyo Tower) in his first collaboration with Asano since 2003’s Bright Future.
Inspired to help others because of his own past, driver Kenji (Asano Tadanobu) takes in the orphaned son of an illegal Chinese migrant. Together with Yuri (Tsuji Kaori), the mentally troubled daughter of his late gangster friend, the three form an odd family of sorts. Also living in the same complex as Kenji are his co-workers Goro (Odagiri Joe), who is hiding from loan sharks, and Kozue (Miyazaki Aoi, in a seeming continuation of her character in Eureka), who is suffering from post-traumatic stress. One day, Kenji encounters his boss’s wife, Chiyoko (Ishida Eri), and realizes that she is actually the mother who abandoned him as a child. Chiyoko cheerily welcomes him back into her life and family as if nothing ever happened, but Kenji is not ready to forgive so easily.
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