is a 2013 Japanese drama film directed by

Shinji Aoyama was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, composer, film critic, and novelist. He graduated from Rikkyo University. He won two awards at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for his film '' Eureka''. Biography Shinji Aoyama was born in Kitakyushu, ...

, starring

Masaki Suda , known professionally as , is a Japanese actor and singer. He won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for the film ''Wilderness''. Personal life Suda was born in Minoh, Osaka Prefecture. Hi ...

. It is based on the

Akutagawa Prize The is a Japanese literary award presented biannually. Because of its prestige and the considerable attention the winner receives from the media, it is, along with the Naoki Prize, one of Japan's most sought after literary prizes. History Th ...

-winning novel by Shinya Tanaka and adapted by

Haruhiko Arai is a Japanese screenwriter. He is also a publisher and an editor of the ''Eiga Geijutsu'' magazine and a professor of the Japan Institute of the Moving Image. Career Arai won the Mainichi Film Award for best screenplay for the film ''W's Tragedy ...

. The film won the Best Director award from the Swiss critics' federation and the Best Film award from the Junior Jury's at the 2013

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

Plot

Toma (

) lives with his father, Madoka (

Ken Mitsuishi is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in films such as ''Chaos (2000 film), Chaos'' and ''Tokyo Playboy Club''. Filmography Film ;1980s *''Tora's Tropical Fever'' (1980) *''Foster Daddy, Tora!'' (1980) *''Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (film), Sai ...

), and Madoka's lover, Kotoko (Yukiko Kinoshita) on the riverside in

Shimonoseki file:141122 Shimonoseki City Hall Yamaguchi pref Japan01s3.jpg, 260px, Shimonoseki city hall is a Cities of Japan, city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 248,193 in 128,762 households and a pop ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūgoku region of Honshu. Yamaguchi Prefecture has a population of 1,377,631 (1 February 2018) and has a geographic area of 6,112 Square kilometre, km2 (2,359 Square mile, sq mi). ...

. Toma's mother, Jinko (

Yūko Tanaka is a Japanese actress from Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She has won several acting awards during a long career working in both film and television, after she graduated from Meiji University. Life and career Early career At the beginning of her care ...

), resides on the other side of the bridge, making a living by cleaning fish. Madoka routinely beats and chokes women during sex. As Madoka's son, Toma is afraid of becoming like his father. On his 17th birthday in 1988, Toma has sex with his girlfriend, Chigusa (Misaki Kinoshita).

Cast

as Toma * Misaki Kinoshita as Chigusa * Yukiko Shinohara as Kotoko *

as Madoka *

as Jinko *

Ittoku Kishibe , born , is a Japanese actor and musician. Career He originally entered show business as the bassist for the Japanese rock bands, The Tigers and Pyg, but later switched to acting. The veteran of over 115 films, he won the Best Actor Japanese ...

as Detective

Production

The song "

Torna a Surriento "Torna a Surriento" () is a Neapolitan song composed in 1894 by Italian musician Ernesto De Curtis to words by his brother, the poet and painter Giambattista De Curtis. The song was copyrighted officially in 1905, and has become one of the most ...

" was used in the closing credits of the film.

Release

The film screened in competition at the 2013

Reception

Jinshi Fujii of ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ''The Asahi Shimbun'', the ''Chunichi Shimbun'', the ''Ma ...

'' praised the film, noting that "Aoyama has succeeded in transmigrating the tradition of Japanese film through something more than mere repetition." Meanwhile, Dan Fainaru of ''

Screen International ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' felt that "the script relies mostly on its female characters that are unsurprisingly far more alive and interesting than the men in their lives, and the same goes for the performances of the three lead actresses."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Backwater, The 2013 films Films directed by Shinji Aoyama Japanese drama films Films with screenplays by Haruhiko Arai 2010s Japanese films