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, F ...

, 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. His debut song is "Mita Koto mo Nai Keshiki". Personal life Suda is a close junior to ...

. 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 ...

-winning novel by Shinya Tanaka and adapted by Haruhiko Arai. 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 Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, ...

Plot

Toma (

) lives with his father, Madoka (

Ken Mitsuishi is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in films such as '' Chaos'' and ''Tokyo Playboy Club''. Filmography Film ;1980s *''Tora's Tropical Fever'' (1980) *''Foster Daddy, Tora!'' (1980) *''Sailor Suit and Machine Gun'' (1981) *'' Tora-san, the Expe ...

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

Shimonoseki is a city located in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. With a population of 265,684, it is the largest city in Yamaguchi Prefecture and the fifth-largest city in the Chūgoku region. It is located at the southwestern tip of Honshu facing the Tsush ...

Yamaguchi Prefecture is a 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 km2 (2,359 sq mi). Yamaguchi Prefecture borders Shimane Prefecture to ...

. Toma's mother, Jinko ( Yūko Tanaka), resides on the other side of the bridge, making a living by cleaning fish. Madoka routinely beats and chokes women when having a 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 * Yūko Tanaka as Jinko * Ittoku Kishibe 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 (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ...

'' 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. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'' 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