Soko nomi nite hikari kagayaku (2014)

Two troubled souls living on the fringes of a port town fall in love, but their trials are far from over.

Director:

Mipo Oh

Writers:

Yasushi Satô (based on the novel by), Ryô Takada (screenplay)

Stars:

Gô Ayano, Chizuru Ikewaki, Masaki Suda

9 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Gô Ayano	...	Tatsuo Sato
Chizuru Ikewaki	...	Chinatsu Ohshiro
Masaki Suda	...	Takuji Ohshiro
Kazuya Takahashi	...	Nakajima
Shôhei Hino	...	Matsumoto
Hiroko Isayama	...	Kazuko Oshiro
Taijirô Tamura	...	Taiji Oshiro
Eita Okuno
Morio Akada

Storyline

In a Japanese port town, Tatsuo, a traumatized man, spends his days drifting aimlessly and his nights drinking himself to oblivion. Whiling his hours away at a pachinko parlor, he meets Takuji, a young man on parole who impulsively invites him to a shabby house on the outskirts of town. There, Tatsuo glimpses Takuji's bedridden father and callous mother, and meets his world-weary older sister Chinatsu. While immediately drawn to each other, romance is an unaffordable luxury for the emotionally closed-off Tatsuo and the disillusioned Chinatsu, who sells herself to provide for her family and keep her brother out of jail. As Tatsuo and Chinatsu take tentative steps towards a relationship, the happy-go-lucky Takuji latches onto Tatsuo, binding their fates. Each step they take to build a better life sets off a chain of actions that have devastating consequences.

---

Plot Keywords:

pachinko | hakodate | hokkaido | kiss | two on a bicycle | 

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Details

Official Sites:

Official English-language Facebook Official English-language Twitter

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

19 April 2014 (Japan)

Also Known As:

The Light Shines Only There

Filming Locations:

Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Wilco Co.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Japan's official Foreign Language Film submission for the 87th Academy Awards®.

User Reviews

Some people's realities

There are a few convenient encounters in Mipo O's The Light Shines Only There, but moored to a stark realism, an unconventional narrative approach and characterisation that is far from typical, it just has a way of making those narrative twists even more unsettling. Set in Hakodate in the remote north island of Hokkaido, Tatsuo has turned to heavy drinking and gambling as a means of blocking out a terrible event in his previous employment as a quarry miner. An encounter with the sister of Takuji, a guy he meets in a pachinko parlour, could however save Tatsuo from oblivion. Chinatsu's family affairs, her job at a squid factory, her love life and her ways of earning some extra money are hardly ideal, but such is In Tatsuo's position that you suspect he would willingly sacrifice illusions for some semblance of normality. Some people's realities however might be too hard for anyone to live with. If there are some characteristics that remind one of a Kinji Fukasaku wild youth movie, with even a slight gangster spin towards the conclusion, Mipo O's film applies real people to dramatic situations and shows the often brutal nature of life in the remotest regions of Japan.