Here is an old man (Tatsuji Yamagishi) .
A stroke has left his left half body disabled. He lives in a hospital under
professional care.
His wife has already passed away and he has no children.
He was once a famous filmmaker? the chief director of the official documentary
of the Tokyo Olympiad 1964 and Japan Expo 1970.
He wishes to write a book about the image culture.
His name is Tatsuji Yamagishi.
One day, A woman filmmaker (Kayo Takefuji) visits him.
She says she wants to make a documentary film about him.
She goes out and shoots the places important to his personal history with
a video camera and shows it to him.
He watches the images with pleasure.
Then she proposes an opening up of the imagination.
She decides to make a fictional film featuring a young man
(Hideo Nishijima) , who is the substitute Tatsuji. In the film, the young
man follows Tatsuji’s life, at the end of which he finds himself standing
alone
in the wind on a sand hill.
Did he discover a real freedom, or is it just a fantasy?
Introduction
This film has two style, the first half is a rough handheld
documentary, a rare friendship between a young woman filmmaker and her
mentor, an elderly filmmaker who is
disabled from a stroke.
But the second half of the film delves deep into his fantasies and internal
personal being…the young filmmaker makes a film re-enacting the old man’s
deepest emotions of childhood and fantasy, as he reflects back on his life
as death approaches.
This second half is completely contrasting in style to the first half,
and yet is so vivid and real.
CAST
STAFF
TatsujiYamagishi
(Himself)
Tatsuji Yamagishi
Director
Kayo Takefuji
"Bone&Flesh Cogitation"
Grand prize at Image Forum Festival 1998
Tatsuji Yamagishi (Young)
Hideo Nishijima
Cinematographer
Tomohiko Tsuji
"Shabondama Elegy"by Ian KERKHOF
"United Red Army"by Koji Wakamatsu
