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Himizu

Japan

2011

129 Min
Color
Japanese
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
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DIR Sion Sono

EXEC Tom Yoda, Satomi Odake

PROD Haruo Umekawa, Masashi Yamazaki

SCR Sion Sono, Minoru Furuya

DP Shohei Tanikawa

CAST Shôta Sometani, Fumi Nikaidô, Tetsu Watanabe, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, Megumi Kagurazaka, Ken Mitsuishi, Denden, Yôsuke Kubozuka

ED Junichi Ito

PROD DES Takashi Matsuzuka

MUSIC Tomohide Harada

SOUND Akira Fukada, Masatoshi Saito

Venice (Competition): Marcello Mastroianni Award, Toronto (Contemporary World Cinema), Mar del Plata (Panorama), Terracotta (Closing Night), CPH PIX (Asian Connection)

Synopsis

A rare film that evokes our present-day atmosphere with surprising immediacy, Himizu is the latest work from Sion Sono, Japanese master of extreme cinema.

While working on Himizu, his adaptation of Furuya Minoru’s manga of the same name, Sono was confronted with the devastation of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami and its consequent atomic accidents, prompting him to weave actuality into the complex tap­estry of his imagination.

“Don’t give up.” The constant refrain repeated in radio and television programmes to a nation hit by the merciless catastrophe sounds even more ominous when written in a note left by Yuichi Sumida’s mother after running off with her lover. At fifteen, Sumida (Shôta Sometani) is left alone to manage the family’s languishing boat-rental business and fend off his drunk and penniless father’s bouts of violence. Sumida sees his simple dream for an ordinary future rapidly evapo­rating before his eyes. Sharing similarly humble but fading dreams is his classmate Keiko Chazawa (Fumi Nikaidou), who also happens to have a major crush on him, even though Sumida seems deeply annoyed by her presence.

When Sumida’s father shows up one night and, for the hundredth time, curses his son for being born — wishing him dead so he can collect on his life insurance — the young boy can no longer contain his repressed anger.

Guided by Sono’s capable direction, Sometani and Nikaidou give visceral perfor­mances as lost youth facing a terrible reality, bringing to life the film’s ghastly beauty. A dark masterpiece, Himizu unleashes powerful content and impeccable style. It is destined to dwell in the viewer’s memory for a long time to come. –TIFF

Director

Original

Sion Sono

Sion Sono (園 子温 Sono Shion, born 1961) is a controversial filmmaker and poet. He was born in Toyokawa, Aichi, Japan and is best known for his movies and avant-garde poetry performances.

After receiving a fellowship with the PIA, Sono made his first feature-length 16 mm film in 1990, Bicycle Sighs (Jitensha Toiki), which he co-wrote, directed, and starred himself. A coming-of-age tale about two underachievers in the perfectionist Japan, Bicycle Sighs settled Sono as a director with great box office success in Japan, and for nearly two years was played over 30 film festivals around Europe and Asia. In 1992, Sono’s second feature film The Room (Heya), also written by himself, a bizarre tale about a serial killer looking for a room in a bleak, doomed Tokyo district, participated at the Tokyo Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize. The Room also toured on 49 festivals worldwide, including the Berlin Film Festival and… read more

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Mugino

4Feb12

I read the manga after seeing the film; Sono has managed to elevate his adaptation to something greater than the source material. His choices and changes are inspired. In a way, the Tohoku disaster was fortuitous in that it crystallized the societal, political and economic ills and tensions that the manga tried to capture. Incorporating the devasatation was as necessary as it was inevitable. Powerful.

Simon So

21Oct11

! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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affasf

22Sep11

monumental adaptation. the link to nuclear issue is a clever move; ravaging plot, poetical and obsessive portraits. a must see.

Kenrick Block and 2 others like this

speakingparts, Simon So

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Markus Keuschnigg

17Sep11

An another great film by Sono Sion: adapted from a manga about a 14-year old boy who grew up in a violent, un-loving family and now struggles to survive of his own, Sono crafts one of the first encounters with the increasingly destablized post-Fukushima-Japan. Everything's a disaster zone here and "Himizu" turns into a hysterical, colourful, imaginative comedy-drama-thriller. Recommended.

Simon So likes this

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W184

Daily Briefing. The Far East, Megacities and Music

By David Hudson on April 13, 2012

A Letter to Momo in Japan, Hou Hsiao-hsien on Taiwanese cinema, Nicolas Rapold on Michael Glawogger, Ben Rivers’s playlist and more.

read article
W184

Venice 2011. Golden Lion for Aleksandr Sokurov's "Faust"

By David Hudson on September 10, 2011

Silver Lion for Cai Shangjun (People Mountain People Sea). Acting awards for Michael Fassbender and Deanie Ip.

read article
W184

Venice 2011. Typhoon Fury

By Daniel Kasman on September 9, 2011

Sono Sion’s Himizu, his second film of 2011, is set just after Japan’s devastating natural catastrophe.

read article
W184

Venice and Toronto 2011. Sion Sono's "Himizu"

By David Hudson on September 7, 2011

The general consensus: screechingly loud, sloppily incongruous, but possibly great.

read article

Sion Sono's HIMIZU Wins Terracotta Festival Audience Award

By Twitchfilm.com on April 16, 2012
The headline says it all, really. The Terracotta Far East Film Festival has wrapped up and Sion Sono’s Himizu has taken the audience award.TERRACOTTA FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES AUDIENCE AWARD WINNER 2012Sion Sono’s
read on Twitchfilm.com

Sion Sono To Direct Adaptation of Minoru Furuya's Dark Manga HIMIZU

By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011
According to Ryuganji’s Don Brown acclaimed director Sion Sono has settled on a new project to follow the upcoming Guilty of Romance. Word is that Sono is now adapting Minoru Furuya’s dark psychological
read on Twitchfilm.com

TIFF 2011: First Stills For Sion Sono's HIMIZU

By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011
Ultra-prolific Japanese auteur Sion Sono may still be fresh off the debut of his Guilty Of Romance in Cannes but now, just a few short months later, he is already preparing to premiere another picture
read on Twitchfilm.com

Check Out This 7-minute Clip From LOVE EXPOSURE Director Sion Sono's New Film HIMIZU!

By Twitchfilm.com on December 17, 2011
Following his cinematic masterpiece LOVE EXPOSURE, Sion Sono has been one busy man. His GUILTY OF ROMANCE debuted in Cannes earlier this year, while his HIMIZU premiered in Venice recently with an appearance
read on Twitchfilm.com

EXCLUSIVE! Sion Sono's HIMIZU & Yuya Ishii's MITSUKO DELIVERS Coming in 2012 From THIRD WINDOW FILMS!

By Twitchfilm.com on November 23, 2011
Twitch has the exclusive news that Sion Sono’s latest film, Himizu, and Yuya Ishii’s (Sawako Decides) latest film, Mitsuko Delivers, are both coming from Third Window Films in 2012!Third Window Films is
read on Twitchfilm.com

Watch The Trailer For Sion Sono's HIMIZU

By Twitchfilm.com on October 20, 2011
When catastrophe struck Japan earlier this year in the form of the most powerful earthquake to ever hit the nation and a subsequent tsunami, maverick filmmaker Sion Sono was already in the afflicted region
read on Twitchfilm.com

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