Year: 2004
Duration: 90\'
A young man persistently pedals his bicycle on a solitary ride from Tokyo to Aomori, the city receding into the distance as the road takes him further from it. What events have led him to undertake such an arduous journey? A tale of guilt and redemption, set against the stunning backdrop of northern Japan. "I don't think I've changed that much over the decades, but I'm getting older, and with Cycling Chronicles I wanted to leave behind a kind of testimony. Through this 17 year old boy I said a little of what I wanted to say about where Japan is heading. […] I don't explain much in the film. So the audience has to interpret it for themselves. I want people who see the film to go out afterward with their friends and argue with each other about what Wakamatsu was trying to say. There are different ways to view the film." (Wakamatsu K.)
Biography
film director
Koji Wakamatsu
Koji Wakamatsu (Miyagi, Japan, 1936 - Tokyo, Japan, 2012) was one of the greatest Japanese directors, coming from the New Wave in the 1960s. He specialized in pinku eiga and then realized a long series of innovative films, with many references to daily life Japanese society. Torino Film Festival presented in 1989 Violated Angels (1967), and then Cycling Chronicles (2005), United Red Army (2007) and Caterpillar (2010). His last film The Millennial Rapture (2012) was screened in Venice, short before his departure.
FILMOGRAFIA
Amai wana (1963), Kabe no naka no himegoto (Affairs within Walls, 1965), Taiji ga mitsuryosuru toki (Embrione, 1966), Yuke yuke nidome no shojo (Su su per la seconda volta vergine, 1969), Hika (1971), Tenshi no kôkotsu (Estasi degli angeli, 1972), Delta no okite (1975), Kagi (1983), Asu naki machikado (1997), 17-Sai no fukei (Cycling Chronicles, 2005), Jitsuroku rengo sekigun - Asama sanso e no michi (United Red Army, 2007), Caterpillar (2010), Sennen no yuraku (The Millennial Rapture, 2012).