27° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL

AI TO KIBŌ NO MACHI

A TOWN OF LOVE AND HOPE
by Nagisa Oshima
Country: Japan
Year: 1959
Duration: 62'


A TOWN OF LOVE AND HOPE
This debut feature film is a powerful
fresco about social discrimination, part
Neorealism and part melodrama.
Masao, a young man from the suburbs,
rounds out his family’s meager budget
by repeatedly selling the same pigeon
that always returns home. When Masao
meets rich Kyoko, who takes the young
man’s condition to heart, new prospects
open up for him.

Biography

film director

Nagisa Oshima

Nagisa Ōshima (Tamano, Japan, 1931 - Fujisawa, Japan, 2013) is considered one of the maestros of Japanese cinema. An exponent of “nuberu bagu,” his films depict the contradictions of Japanese society since WWII, in which growing materialism is flanked by strict observance of centuries-old rules, generating oxymorons and irresolvable conflicts. His most important films include Cruel Story (1960); The Sun’s Burial (1960); Night and Fog in Japan (1960); The Ceremony (1971); In the Realm of the Senses (1976), a true sensation because of its explicit sexual content; Empire of Passion (1978), which won Best Director at Cannes; and Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983), which received a BAFTA for Best Score. His final film was Taboo (1999), presented in competition at Cannes. In 2009, the Torino Film Festival dedicated a complete retrospective to him.

FILMOGRAFIA

Seishun zankoku monogatari (Racconto crudele della giovinezza, 1960), Taiyō no hakaba (Il cimitero del sole, 1960), Nihon no yoru to kiri (Notte e nebbia in Giappone, 1960), Etsuraku (Il godimento, 1965), Muri shinju: Nihon no natsu (Japanese Summer: Double Suicide, 1967), Koshikei (Death by Hanging, 1968), Gishiki (La cerimonia, 1971), Ai no korīda (Ecco l’impero dei sensi, 1976), Ai no bōrei (L’impero della passione, 1978), Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (Furyo, 1983), Max mon amour (Max amore mio, 1986), Gohatto (Tabù - Gohatto, 1999). 

Cast

& Credits

regia, sceneggiatura/
director, screenplay
Nagisa Oshima
fotografia/cinematography
Hiroyuki Kusuda
montaggio/film editing
Yoshi Sugihara
scenografia/
production design
Kintaro Yamamoto
costumi/costume design
Yoshie Taguchi
musica/music
Riichiro Manabe
suono/sound
Shujuro Kurita
interpreti e personaggi/
cast and characters
Hiroshi Fujikawa (Masao),
Yuki Tominaga (Kyoko),
Fumio Watanabe (Yuji,
il fratello maggiore
di Kyoko/Kyoko’s Elder
Brother), Yuko Mochizuki
(Kuniko, la madre
di Masao/Masao’s Mother)
produttore/producer
Tomio Ikeda
produzione/production
Shochiku Ofuna
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