In preparing for this film, director Nobuhiro Suwa wrote an detailed script and then threw it away at the last moment. Instead, in a manner reminiscent of Mike Leigh and John Cassavetes, he worked intensively with the actors to develop their characters and allowed the script to develop from there. Though the film appears to be a standard work of fiction depicting the slow collapse of a relationship between an out-of-work actor (Nishijima Hidetoshi) and his girlfriend (Yu Eri), the dialogue seems fresh and real, filled with sentences that trail off and the Japanese equivalent of “ums” and “ahs.” At one point, the director breaks in and barks questions to the actors off-camera, throwing the film into that fuzzy zone between fiction and documentary. This impression is underscored by the handheld camerawork of Masaki Tamura, the cinematographer for legendary documentarist Shinsuke Ogawa. —Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Nobuhiro Suwa (諏訪 敦彦, Suwa Nobuhiro, born May 28, 1960 in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture) is a Japanese film director. His directorial works and screenplays often make use of improvisation techniques. Currently, Suwa is the President of Tokyo Zokei University.
Having graduated from Hiroshima Prefectural Hatsukaichi High School (located in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima), Suwa studied at Tokyo Zokei University, under the tutorship of Nobuhiro Kawanaka. While at the college, he began working producing independent films, of which Hanasareru Gang was chosen for the Pia Film Festival. After graduating from Tokyo Zokei, Suwa began directing television documentary films, and worked with directors such as Sōgo Ishii and Masashi Yamamoto.
In 1996, his feature film directorial debut, 2/Duo (2/デュオ, 2/Dyuo) was released. Suwa’s second film, M/Other, was released soon after in 1999, winning the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festiva and being the subject of several other… read more
two characters constantly shifting between the consciousness of how disfunctional their relationship is, and the literally breathtaking, draining feeling that they can't escape this. only a cold camera, slowly panning to follow them, always late like a stolid surveillance camera could achieve to record such mixed feelings beautiful and painful!
