is a 1984

Japanese film The , also known domestically as , has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2022, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced, producing 634 fi ...

directed by

Nobuhiko Obayashi was a Japanese film director, director, screenwriter and film editing, editor of films and television advertisements. He began his filmmaking career as a pioneer of Japanese experimental films before transitioning to directing more mainstream m ...

, based on an original story by .

Plot

After her father's sudden death, a Japanese

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

girl travels to the southwest Pacific archipelago of

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

in search of the location, which they had agreed to visit together, of the film's title. From her encounters with Japanese

émigré An ''émigré'' () is a person who has emigrated, often with a connotation of political or social exile or self-exile. The word is the past participle of the French verb ''émigrer'' meaning "to emigrate". French Huguenots Many French Hugueno ...

s and locals, she learns where the real island closest to heaven may be found.

Cast

Tomoyo Harada is a Japanese actress, singer, and lyricist, and was a popular idol in the 1980s. Career In 1982, Harada participated in a movie audition with the reason of wanting to meet Hiroyuki Sanada, and received a special award. In July of the same ...

* * Tōru Minegishi *

Miyoko Akaza is a Japanese actress. She was married to Toshiya Fujita. Filmography *"Libido" Sei no kigen (1967) *"Affair in the Snow" Juhyo no yoromeki (1968) *"A Tale of Peonies and Lanterns" Botan-dôrô (1968) *"Nihiki no yojimbo" (1968) *"The Blazing ...

Shigeru Izumiya Shigeru Izumiya (泉谷しげる ''Izumiya Shigeru'', born May 11, 1948, in Aomori, raised in Meguro, Tokyo) is a Japanese poet, folk singer, actor, tarento. He established the record company For Life Records with Takuro Yoshida, Yosui Inoue, a ...

Yukihiro Takahashi was a Japanese musician, singer, record producer, fashion designer, and actor, who was best known internationally as the drummer, lead vocalist, & 2nd keyboardist of the Yellow Magic Orchestra, as the former drummer of the Sadistic Mika Band, ...

Kayo Matsuo is a Japanese actress. Filmography Films * '' Endless Desire'' (1958) * '' My Second Brother'' (1959) – Yoshiko Yasumoto * ''High Teen Yakuza'' (1962) – Keiko Nakagawa * ''Aoi sanmyaku'' (1963) – Kuko * '' Hikaru umi'' (1963) – Eiko ...

Nenji Kobayashi is a Japanese actor. He won the award for best supporting actor at the 23rd Japan Academy Prize for ''Poppoya''. Kobayashi signed with Toei in 1961 and started his acting career with small roles. Filmography Film * '' Soshiki Bōryoku'' (19 ...

Hideo Murota was a Japanese actor who specialized in playing villains and tough guys. In 1957, he signed a contract with Toei Studio and appeared in over 1000 films. He won the Best Supporting Actor award at the Yokohama Film Festival for his role in ''Origi ...

Nobuko Otowa was a Japanese actress who appeared in more than 100 films between 1950 and 1994. Life and career A graduate of Takarazuka Girl's Opera School, Otowa was first signed to Daiei studios, before becoming a freelance actress by the early 1950s. A ...

References

External links

*
''The Island Closest to Heaven''
at the

Japanese Movie Database The , more commonly known as simply JMDb, is an online database of information about Japanese movies, actors, and production crew personnel. It is similar to the Internet Movie Database but lists only those films initially released in Japan. Y. ...

1984 films Films directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi 1980s Japanese-language films 1980s Japanese films {{1980s-Japan-film-stub