Contemporary Japanese Cinema
Haruhara-san no uta
Dir. Sugita Kyōshi
Japan 2021, 121’
Subtitles: Polish & English
While events from the past are still fresh in her mind, 24-year-old Sachi decides to change her life. Once a curator at an art museum, she decides to pick up a part-time job in a cafe. She changes the apartment recommended to her by one of the cafe's regular customers. Sudden visit from her aunt and uncle not only wakes her up from her slumber, but also soothes the languid atmosphere. Although she gets better day by day and everything seems to be normal on the surface, the images from bygone days keep recurring.
Haruhara-san's Recorder - winner of the audience award and Grand at the 32nd Festival International de Cinéma de Marseille – chaired by Lav Diaz – draws inspiration from slow cinema poetics. Although the characters develop slowly, each has time for reflection. Sugita tells Sachi’s story sparingly, implying that under the surface of ordinariness and everyday rituals there lies a dormant ocean of hidden emotions. The director allows the viewer to unravel this story on one’s own, leaving unfinished sentences, discreet glances, small gestures and quiet sighs.
Sławomir Wasiński
Awards and Festivals
Festival International de Cinéma de Marseille (FIDMarseille) 2021 Winner Audience Award
Sugita Kyōshi
Born in Tokyo, 1977. While being a student at Rikkyo University, Sugita studied films under the director Shinozaki Makoto. After graduation, Sugita worked as an assistant director for films directed by Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Aoyama Shinji, Suwa Nobuhiro, and others. His debut feature, A Song I Remember (2011), was shown at the Tokyo International Film Festival: his second feature, Listen to Light (2017) was screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival as well as Jeonju International Film Festival. Sugita has established his own style to illustrate the incidents and each character’s minds with eyes and subtle body movements by limiting explanation in dialogues or narrations as much as possible. This film is his third feature.
Filmography
2011 Hitotsu no uta
2017 Hikari no uta
2021 Haruhara-san no uta
Cast & Crew
Director: Sugita Kyōshi
Screenplay: Sugita Kyōshi
Cinematography: Iioka Yukiko
Editing: Okawa Keiko
Music: Shank
Costume Design: Komiyama Mei
Cast: Araki Chika, Niibe Minako, Kaneko Takanori, Ito Saho, Nojima Mizuho, Hidaka Keisuke
Producer: Higeno Jun
Production: Iha Films
Language: Japanese
Colouration: Colour
