Futatsume no mado (2014)

On a subtropical island, a teenage couple deal with the interwoven cycle of life, death and love.

Director:

Naomi Kawase

Writer:

Naomi Kawase (screenplay)

Stars:

Nijirô Murakami, Junko Abe, Miyuki Matsuda

4 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Nijirô Murakami	...	Kaito
Junko Abe	...	Kyôko (as Jun Yoshinaga)
Miyuki Matsuda	...	Isa
Tetta Sugimoto	...	Tôru
Makiko Watanabe	...	Misaki
Jun Murakami	...	Atsushi
Hideo Sakaki
Sadae Sakae
Kazurô Maeda
Mitsuaki Nakano
Yukiharu Kawabata
Yukiyo Maeda
Kinue Yasuda
Fujio Tokita

Storyline

On the subtropical Japanese island of Amami, traditions about nature remain eternal. During the full-moon night of traditional dances in August, 16-year-old Kaito discovers a dead body floating in the sea. His girlfriend Kyoko will attempt to help him understand this mysterious discovery. Together, Kaito and Kyoko will learn to become adults by experiencing the interwoven cycles of life, death and love.

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Plot Keywords:

infidelity | full frontal female nudity | full male frontal nudity | death | love | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [France] Official site [Japan]

Country:

France Japan Spain

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

26 July 2014 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Still the Water

Filming Locations:

Amami, Kagoshima, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eddie Saeta S.A.,Kumie,Xian Longrui Film And TV Culture Media Co.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After the release of the film, Naomi Kawase dubbed it as her masterpiece.

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Soundtracks

Still The Water
Composed by Hashiken
Violin by 'David Braccini (II)'
Piano by David Hadjadj
Cello by Maeva Le Berre
Arranged and Performed by David Hadjadj and Maeva Le Berre

User Reviews

A beautiful poem about life, love and death

No, the last film of Naomi Kawase, internationally known as "Still the water", is not a film reserved to "intellectual people", as I heard recently. If we refer to "Last year at Marienbad" (Resnais-1961) as a film for"intellectual people", we find no common point, except slowness of the rhythm.

The spectator should only follow the example of the female heroin, Kyoko, who, in one scene at the beginning, dives into the sea with all her clothes (except her shoes), and enjoy this bath, meeting joyfully with the old-fellow fisherman, "PapyTortoise".

Following her example, we, spectators, should dive into the film, and enjoy the play of sunlight across the branches of the old banyan, just in front of the terrace of Kyoko's house; enjoy the meals lovely prepared by Kyoko's father (so much different from the meals eaten in a restaurant at Tokyo by Kaito, Kyoko's lover, and his father; and completely opposed to the food left by Kaito's mother in the refrigerator); enjoy even the soft departure of Isa, Kyoko's mother, after a long illness, among songs and dances.

I love so much this warm celebration of la joie de vivre, typically a Japanese one, as, after each disaster, typhoon, earthquake or tsunami, we see Japanese people build again, with a strong faith in life, all that has been destroyed.