Women on the Edge has four leads: three actresses and a house. A house in a beautiful rural location, the countryside tarnished by the disaster which struck Japan in March 2011. However, in the house’s immediate surroundings everything seems normal. The three actresses play the sisters Takako (Watanabe Makiko), Nobuko (Nakamura Yuko) and Satomi (Fujima Miho).
The three have a frosty relationship and the reunion is unplanned. They haven’t seen each other for ten years. They all accidentally return to the family home for different reasons, which leads to tensions, and the desolate landscape after the disaster just exacerbates the mood.
Kobayashi (The Rebirth) has previously shot films in this area that he loves, which led him to purchase the house that the film is set in and around. Initially he doubted whether shooting in the disaster area was appropriate, but those who live there encouraged him. –IFFR
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
