Hikari (2017)

A passionate writer of film versions for the visually impaired meets an older photographer who is slowly losing his eyesight.

Director:

Naomi Kawase

Writer:

Naomi Kawase (screenplay)

Stars:

Masatoshi Nagase, Ayame Misaki, Tatsuya Fuji

1 win & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Masatoshi Nagase	...	Masaya Nakamori
Ayame Misaki	...	Misako Ozaki
Tatsuya Fuji	...	Kitabayashi / Juzo
Kazuko Shirakawa	...	Yasuko Ozaki
Misuzu Kanno	...	Tomoko / Tokie
Mantarô Koichi	...	Akitoshi
Chihiro Ohtsuka	...	Nakamori's Friend #1
Nobumitsu Ônishi	...	Nakamori's Friend #2
Noémie Nakai	...	Audiolocution Attending #1
Saori	...	Audiolocution Attending #2 (as Saori Koide)

Storyline

At a firm specializing in creating audio descriptions for films to serve the visually impaired, a descriptive video transcriber comes to know one of the panel members who is a formerly successful photographer who has lost much of his eyesight. As the man loses his main mode of connecting with the world he also yields his other means away. The new acquaintanceship leads to man and woman coming to terms with their lives and professions and seeing the world in new ways.

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Plot Keywords:

long haired woman | long hair | feminine hair | denim skirt | schoolgirl | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Germany]

Country:

Japan France

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

27 May 2017 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Esplendor

Filming Locations:

Nara, Nara, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Comme des Cinémas,Kino Films,Kumie

Technical Specs

Runtime:

101 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film had its North American premiere at TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) in September, 2017.

User Reviews

Subtle, poetic film about loss, redemption and acceptance

Saw this at TIFF on Saturday night. Packed theatre, sadly the director and none of the actors were in attendance. This was the first Naomi Kawase film I've seen, and I really enjoyed it. She's taken a relatively common film story line - an unlikely friendship between two people - and turned it into something quite authentic and memorable. One person is struggling with profound loss (blindness - he's a photographer) and the other is offering help while also working out her own issues (her father's death and her mother's senility). Kawase treats this subject matter very delicately, with lots of camera playing with light and several long- held close-ups of faces. The sound editor of this film should win a very big award, by the way. Sounds clearly play a big role in this film, and it's recorded and handled very well.

Kawase shoots her actors in a strange way, and I haven't figured out yet if it was intentional for this film only, or if it's something she's done in her other films. She often cuts off the tops of heads when framing her actors. It's so obvious it must be intentional, and maybe it relates to a line in the film when the photographer says he can see better when he looks down. I'm not sure, but it's definitely noticeable and something to consider.

Beautiful film...I was glad to get tickets to see a film from a director I was not familiar with, and also a film that will likely not be easy to see in a theatre outside of the festival circuit.