Yuko is a Japanese girl who was taken hostage in Iraq while volunteering there as an aid worker. Finally released and back in her hometown, Yuko finds herself ostracized as a national disgrace by society that sees her helping a country other than Japan, and the embarrassment of getting captured but not killed, as things of which to be brutally ashamed. With stalwart determination shining through a fierce, powerful lead performance by Fusako Urabe, Yuko must endure an ordeal at the place one least expects to find oppression: her home. It seems the whole of Japanese society is against her, embarrassed and horrified at the international attention she received. Yuko is “bashed” every day by insults in the street, anonymous phone calls and even physical violence. Fired from her job, her isolation from the outside world deepens along with her despair. After losing her only supporter, her father, she begins to think the unthinkable: to return to the only place where the expressions on people’s faces aren’t cold or filled with anger, to the only place she has ever felt needed.
Kobayashi Masahiro (小林 政広 Kobayashi Masahiro?, born on January 6, 1954 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese film director. Masahiro Kobayashi was born on January 6, 1954 in Tokyo, Japan). He began his career as a folk singer, and then turned to scriptwriting. A great admirer of François Truffaut, he directed his first feature, Closing Time, in 1996 and in 1997 became the first Japanese filmmaker to win the Grand Prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. In its wake, he founded Monkey Town Productions and made three films back to back which won prizes in three consecutive years at Cannes: Kaizokuban Bootleg Film (1999) and Man Walking on Snow (2001) in Un Certain Regard and Koroshi (2000) in the Directors’ Fortnight. In 2003, Perfect Education 5: Amazing Story, enchanted Locarno with a discreet love story set against a backdrop of solitude, snow and desolation. Screened in competition at Cannes in 2005, Bashing received critical acclaim and won the Grand Prix at Tokyo Filmex… read more
Brilliant film, I don't know why it's not better known. The lead actress was astounding and she brilliantly conveyed the almost hopeless situation her character was in. It's hard to even comprehend what it must feel like to live like that.
A pretty average movie which always hesitate to go somewhere. As an european, I had a hard time feeling the premice and most of the time it didn't make sense to me even if i accepted it. I loved the actress but she looks more mentally ill than anything else, I don't know if that was a point. I'm really wodering why this film even exists.
Definitely one of the more powerful films I've watched in awhile. The acting is incredible; I never considered the actress to be acting at all - it felt like she was real; like this was her life. Stunning cinematography as well. Kobayashi did a superb job telling this overwhelmingly tragic story. The only reason I can't see myself watching it again is because of the strong, lingering emotional impact it had on me
By the end of this movie you will have walked in this woman's shoes. Brilliant acting.
Dare to be different and people will bash you. That happens in all societies. Conformism is universal. All you can do is stand up and fight against the odds. Or else you can flee from your predicament… read review
Watching “Bashing”, I was under the impression it was an Antonioni film. Kobayashi’s style definitely echoes some of Antonioni’s work. How the characters interact with their vast industrial like landscapes… read review
Being Japanese Canadian, I have to say that the film and Schilling’s essay hit the nail on the head with regards to Japanese attitudes towards individualism. Japan has long been an insular society… read review
An aptly titled film, that is for sure.
I humor myself, for what is a heavy, grim film, that leaves your stomach in knots. Almost never has the sound of the phone ringing been so agonizing or… read review
