Program

BAKUON Film Festival, again.

Produced by Yasuto Higuchi, the BAKUON Film Festival is a film experience with superb sound and volume, using the full range of sound equipment for live music performances. This time, the festival will be held at our Museum Hall for the first time in about 10 years as a related event to filmmaker Sora Hokimoto's solo exhibition at the museum.

The films screened are selected by Hokimoto himself, ranging from first-time BAKUON screenings to classic favourites. Enjoy a special line-up just for this occasion.

■ Program 1 [Sat, 20 Jan]

13:00 - 14:59
Robinson's Garden
1987 / 119 min / Japan / Colour / DCP
Director: Yamamoto Masashi / Screenplay: Yamamoto Masashi, Yamazaki Mikio
Cast: Ota Kumiko, Machida Machizo, Ueno Yuko

Kumi lives in a foreigner's house where drifters gather. One day, Kumi wanders into an abandoned house with lush greenery, and moves there, feeling a strange sense of nostalgia. A Robinson Crusoe-like life begins, ploughing the fields by day and gazing at the stars by night... Mystery and fantasy contrast with a sense of apocalypse and vitality in director Masashi Yamamoto's theatrical film debut. Music is by Sudanese folk musician Hamza El Din, Yoichiro Yoshikawa of NHK's special 'Chikyu Daikiko', and the unique funk-rock band Jagatara, led by Kochi-born Akemi Edo. The film is a collection of unique talents, including artist Akiko Maemoto, who created the fantastic 'red room' in the ruins. Winner of the zitty award at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival and the Special Jury Prize at the 42nd Locarno International Film Festival.

15:10-17:10
Mad Max: Fury Road *R15+
2015 / 120 min / USA / Colour / Blu-ray　
Director: George Miller / Screenplay: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nico Lazauris
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keith-Burne, Zoe Kravitz

A world where civilisation has been destroyed and resources have been depleted. Max, an ex-cop, wanders the devastated land, deprived of his beloved family, and is captured by an army of vicious Joes. Then Furiosa, a female warrior under the Joes, appears. Max begins his escape to freedom in cooperation with Furiosa and others who plan to rebel against the Joes. The fourth film in the Mad Max series, a revenge drama set in a devastated near-future. The film was directed and written by George Miller, as in the previous three films, with Tom Hardy playing the main character Max. The film was nominated for 10 Academy Awards at the 88th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won a total of six awards, including Best Editing, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

*Only Mad Max: Death Road to Fury is available as a standalone film for 500 yen.

■ Program 2 [Sat, 20 Jan]

17:30-21:07
EUREKA
2000 / 217 min / Japan / Colour / DCP
Director/Screenplay: Aoyama Shinji
Cast: Yakusho Koji, Miyazaki Aoi, Miyazaki Masaru, Saito Yoichiro

A bus hijacking incident in a provincial city in Kyushu. Sawai, a bus driver, and his teenage siblings Naoki and Kozue, who were passengers on the bus, narrowly survive, but are deeply traumatised. Sawai leaves town and is never heard from again, leaving the siblings to live alone together. 2 years later, Sawai returns to town and starts living with the siblings at their home. The siblings' cousin Akihiko joins them, and the four of them board a bus again to set off on a journey, as if to shake off the past... Using delicate black-and-white cinematography, this human drama slowly captures the process of rebirth among emotionally traumatised people. Winner of the FIPRESCI and Ecumenical Awards at the 53rd Cannes International Film Festival, this is the seminal work of director Shinji Aoyama, who passed away in 2022.

■ Program 3 [Sun, 21 Jan]

10:00-10:35
Red Riding Hood
2008 / 35 min / France / Colour / 35 mm
Director/Screenplay: Shinji Aoyama
Cast: Judith Schmura, Lou Castel, Alban Omar, Jean-Christophe Folie

Young Delphine wanders the Parisian suburb of Genevilliers in search of dynamite left behind by her grandfather and the man she believes to be in possession of it. Delphine eventually locates the dynamite. ...... A medium-length film commissioned by the Centre National de la Theatre Genevilliers and lightly shot entirely on location in France. Dedicated to the memory of Swiss film director Daniel Schmidt, who died in 2006, two years before filming.

10:45-13:05
Annette
Directed by Leos Carax.
Cast: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg
2021 / 140 min / France, Germany, Belgium, Japan / Colour / DCP

Los Angeles. Henry, a stand-up comedian with an offensive sense of humour, and Anne, an internationally renowned opera singer. The two are so far apart that they are hailed as "beauty and the wild", but they fall in love and soon become the centre of public attention. But their lives begin to unravel when Annette is born to them, a mysterious and extraordinary talent. ...... Dark fantasy rock opera by the genius Leos Carax. Based on a story originally constructed by Ron and Russell Maille's band Sparks as a story-telling studio album, the entire film is told in song, and all the songs are recorded live. Winner of the Best Director Award at the 74th Cannes Film Festival.

■ Program 4 [Sun, 21 Jan]

13:45-14:49
Tenryu-ku Okuryoke Osawa: Bessho Tea Factory
2014 / 64 min / Japan / Colour / Blu-ray
Director: Hori Teiichi / Production: Uchiyama Takeshi

One of director Hori Teiichi's first documentary films in the Tenryu-ku series, which focuses on life in the mountains. The setting is Osawa village, a sloping community located at an altitude of 740 m on a steep mountainside in the northernmost part of Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture. Hori began location scouting in the Oigawa and Tenryu River basins in June 2013 and arrived by chance at Osawa settlement, Okuryoke, Tenryu-ku. He was struck by the view of the village, which is located overlooking Mt Azabu in front of him and the clear waters of the Shirakura River flowing at the bottom of a deep valley, and started filming. The film quietly captures the tea picking on the steep slopes of Osawa, which takes place in late May during the fresh green season, and the processing at the factory up to tea production. The small-budget and crew filming is influenced by the work of Jean-Claude Rousseau.

15:00-16:39
The Spirit of the Beehive
1973 / 99 min / Spain / Colour / DCP
Director: Victor Erice.
Cast: Ana Torrent, Isabel Terrier, Fernando Fernán Gómez

A small village after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Ana, a six-year-old girl living with her parents and older sister, is fascinated by the film Frankenstein, which tours the village and leads her to believe that the film's monster is alive. Ana visits a hut on the outskirts of the village in search of the monster, but finds a man who looks like a deserter ... Set in 1940s Spain, this feature film by master filmmaker Víctor Erice is a poetic depiction of a young girl and her mix of real and imaginary worlds. Debut work by master filmmaker Víctor Erice. The eyes of the protagonist Ana, with their innocent light, strike a chord. Winner of the Grand Prix (Golden Shell Award) at the San Sebastian and the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival.

■ Special programme [Sun, 21 Jan]
17:00-17:45 A Talk by Yasuto Higuchi and Sora Hokimoto
Admission for those with programme ticket stubs.

■ Program 5 [Sun, 21 Jan]

18:00-18:59
Hadakanoyume
2022 / 59 min / Japan / Colour / DCP
Director/Screenplay / Editor: Hokimoto Sora
Cast: Aoki Yuzu, Tadano Miako, Maeno Kenta, Hukimoto Takahide

A family lives on the banks of the Shimanto River in Kochi Prefecture, surrounded by the Shikoku Mountains. A mother decides to spend the rest of her life in the house where her grandfather lives, and her son Noro accompanies her. Noro, a nostalgic man who is worried about this world where lies walk around with the truth, is on the prowl, unable to accept his mother's approaching death. ...... Half projecting the director's own present, who lost his parents at a young age and lives with his grandfather in Kochi Prefecture, this is a story of time spanning three generations of parents and children, of touch that jumps over the boundaries of time, and of the cruel distance that still cannot be touched. This is the second feature film by filmmaker and musician Motosora Boki.

19:10-20:57
Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani
2005 / 107 min / Japan / Colour / DCP
Director/Screenplay: Aoyama Shinji
Cast: Asano Tadanobu, Miyazaki Aoi, Nakahara Masaya, Tsutsui Yasutaka, Toda Masahiro, Tsurumi Shingo, Erica Kawazu Yusuke / Okada Mariko

In the year 2015, "lemming disease", a lethal virus with an unknown identity that makes people who become infected want to commit suicide, is spreading all over the world. Two musicians living quietly near the sea have forgotten their success in the city and are immersed in creating a new sound. They are visited by a wealthy man who wants them to save his granddaughter Hana, who has been infected with lemming's disease, by playing their noise music. Under the vast sky, a sound that no one has ever heard before echoes through the air, enveloping Hana. The title of the film, Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachthani, is a Hebrew phrase meaning "O God, why have you forsaken me?". The film was selected for "Un Certain Regard" at the 58th Cannes Film Festival.

Comments from Yasuhito Higuchi

The diffusion and sophistication of digital screening systems has made it easier to reflect the filmmakers' intentions in terms of image and sound as they were intended, but bombastic screenings can still reveal hints of the mysterious things in the background that are accidental or deliberately hidden. In Mad Max: Death Road to Fury, for example, the beautiful and sad echoes lurk in the roar of engines, explosions and sandstorms. It could be the proof of existence of oppressed women and those who have died. In 'Eri Eri Lema Sabaktani', silence overtakes the raging waves and echoing noise. It is the 'Sound of Silence' of a place where everyone is born there and returns to it. And in Eureka, it is the ghostly noise attached to the casual lives of the protagonists. We are not living on our own, and a film is not made up of only one film, and we are sure to realise the endless expansion and meaning of this.

Yasuhito Higuchi - Film critic, producer of Bakudo Eiga Matsuri (Bakudo Sound Film Festival), founder of "boid" in 1998, and organiser of the Bakudo Sound Screening Series using a live sound system for music at the Kichijoji Baus Theatre since 2004. His books include Eiga ga Bakune de Whispering (Bakudo Sound Whispering) (boid), Eiga to Rock 'n' Roll ni okeru America to US to Tenka wa Katto wa Dareka (How America and the United States Fought in Movie and Rock 'n' Roll) (Seidosha), Lost in America (Digital Hollywood), Fear no Eiga Shi (The History of Fearful Movies) (written by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Makoto Shinozaki / Seidosha), amongst others.

Comments from Sora Hokimoto

Shinji Aoyama, Teiichi Hori, Masashi Yamamoto, Leos Carax and Victor Erice ...
While studying film with director Shinji Aoyama as a student, I was taught how free cinema is on set and in the theatre, and some of these films will be screened at this time of BAKUON Film Festival. BAKUON does not just mean that the sound is louder. It is an attempt to experience films in a loud sound environment, using sound equipment not normally used for films but for live music performances.
The sound is adjusted to match the 'voice' that the film has, including how it will sound in the venue.
We hope that you will experience with us the way the film rises up with an experience that can never be reproduced again, as if you were to break yourself trying to watch the film once and let the sound soak into each cell.

Sora Hokimoto - Filmmaker, musician and novelist, born in Saitama in 1992 and currently lives in Shimanto, Kochi. After graduating from Tama Art University, she made her feature film debut with Haruneko (Haruneko), which she directed, wrote the script and composed the music for, co-produced by Shinji Aoyama and Takenori Sendo. Released. His second feature film, Hadaka no Yume, whose theme song is "Hadaka no Yume", was released in the same year, and in 2011 he made his debut as a novelist with a novel of the same title.