Country: Japan
Year: 2015
Duration: 90'
Summer 2015. Ryoichi works in a musical instrument store in Tokyo, but he feels like a loser: he wasn’t able to make it as a rock star and he doesn’t even have the courage to declare his feeling to his co-worker Yuko. One day he sees a little turtle staring him in the eyes and decides she will be the solution to all his problems: he buys her and calls her Pikadon. Laden with such expectations, the turtle seems to actually have a positive effect on Ryoichi’s life and things start to turn his way. In the meantime, Japan is struck by a series of unexpected events, which also affect an elderly man who lives quietly underground with his magic toys. Six months later, a big concert is held at Nippon Stadium where thousands of fans gathered to see a rock star perform: it is none other than Ryoichi. At that point, it becomes clear that the giant monster that appeared in Tokyo was the wish of the young man, of Yuko, of Pikadon, and the old man with the toys: the wish of love.
Biography
film director
Sion Sono
Sion Sono (Toyokawa, Japan, 1961) is an internationally acclaimed Japanese filmmaker. His movies depict Japanese society in a provocative and violent way, amid a plethora of pop culture references. His most renown films include Suicide Club (2002), which is part of a trilogy on alienation along with Noriko’s Dinner Table (2005), winner of the Berliner Zeitung Jury Award, and Love Exposure (2008), winner of the FIPRESCI Award and the Caligari Film Award at the Berlinale. Love Exposure is also the first film of the “trilogy of hate,” which includes Cold Fish (2010) and Guilty of Romance (2011). He participated to the Venice Film Festival in 2011 with the feature Himizu, and in 2013 with Why Don’t You Play in Hell. The Torino Film Festival paid tribute to him with a retrospective in 2011. He participated in several TFF editions with his films Tokyo Tribe (2014), Love & Peace (2015), TAG (2015) and Shinjuku Swan (2015).
FILMOGRAFIA
The Room (1992), Suicide Club (2002), Noriko’s Dinner Table (2005), Strange Circus (2005), Hazard (2006), Exte: Hair Extensions (2007), Love Exposure (2008), Cold Fish (2010), Guilty of Romance (2011), Himizu (2011), Why Don’t You Play in Hell (2013), Tokyo Tribe (2014), Love & Peace (2015), Riaru onigokko (TAG, 2015), Shinjuku suwan (Shinjuku Swan, 2015), Antiporno (2016), Tokyo Vampire Hotel (serie tv/tv series, 2017).
Declaration
film director
“This film is my life, my soul, my everything.”
Cast
& Credits
regia, sceneggiatura/director, screenplay
Sion Sono
soggetto/story
dall’omonimo manga di/from the manga of the same title by Sion Sono
fotografia/cinematography
Nobuya Kimura
musica/music
Yasuhiko Fukuda
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Hiroki Hasegawa (Ryoichi Suzuki), Kumiko Aso (Yuko Terashima), Toshiyuki Nishida (l’uomo misterioso/mysterious old man)
produzione/production
Gansis Inc.
contatti/contacts
Asmik-Ace
Kayo Yoshida
kayo@asmik-ace.co.jp
Sion Sono
soggetto/story
dall’omonimo manga di/from the manga of the same title by Sion Sono
fotografia/cinematography
Nobuya Kimura
musica/music
Yasuhiko Fukuda
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters
Hiroki Hasegawa (Ryoichi Suzuki), Kumiko Aso (Yuko Terashima), Toshiyuki Nishida (l’uomo misterioso/mysterious old man)
produzione/production
Gansis Inc.
contatti/contacts
Asmik-Ace
Kayo Yoshida
kayo@asmik-ace.co.jp
