ARTICLE FILMS
Still Life of Memories
Hitoshi Yazaki
Rei (Natsuko Haru), a photography museum curator, becomes fascinated with the black-and-white nature photos of the moody Haruma Suzuki (Masanobu Ando) at a gallery exhibition. She commissions him for a private project on two conditions: He asks no questions and gives her the negatives. Though puzzled by the secrecy, he agrees.
In a lonely villa up in the mountains, Rei reveals his subject: Her (unseen by the audience) vagina. As she sits on a chair, legs parted, Haruma silently goes to work.
Rei, with her strict-librarian air, keeps her distance from Haruma, while the film reveals her motives more in enigmatic hints than obvious explanations. Watching her mother dying in a hospital, Rei realizes that human life is finite, and the photographs, she tells Haruma, “capture my time.” But why the specific focus on her privates?
Then Haruma’s lover, Natsuki (Rima Matsuda), becomes pregnant — and suspicious of his frequent absences. Haruma is taking a deeper professional interest in the project, but as Rei’s inhibitions fall away, passion rears its head.
CAST
Suzuki Haruma Ando Masanobu
Rei Haru Natsuko
Natsuki Matsuda Rima
Rei’s mother Ito Kiyomi
Yoko Vivian Sato
Staff
Director: Yazaki Hitoshi
Producer Ito Akihiko
Script: Asanishi Masa / Ito Akihiko
DP: Isao Ishii
Gaffer: Osaka Akio
Sound designer : oshikata Jyunji
Music: Tanaka Takuto
Production designer: anaka Masami
Editer: Memita Ken
Production: PLEJOUR＋Film Bandit＋INFINI
YAZAKI HITOSHI （1956～）
Yazaki debuted with “Afternoon breezes” (1980) and was a record-setting hit in Japan as a 16mm film, awarded “Best Independent Film” at the Yokohama Film Festival. It was also invited to several overseas film festivals such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Montreal World Film Festival and came under the spotlight.
His second film “March comes in like a lion” (1991) was invited to some major international film festivals, for example, the Berlin International Film Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It received the Luis Buñuel’s “L'Age d'Or Award” hosted by the Belgium Royal Family, so his reputation went up.
He went to the UK to study, and shot a 4hr long film, “Girl who picks flowers and the girl who kills insects” (2000), the story was set in London. He winds up his independent film era here.
He made a move to commercial films, and released “Strawberry shortcakes” (2006)
It was shown at the international film festivals like “International Film Festival Rotterdam”, “Barcelona Asian Film Festival”, “Chicago International Film Festival” and “Warsaw International Film Festival”. It won the International Grand Jury Prize at the “Barcelona Asian Film Festival” and also Prix du Public Award at “Festival du cinéma japonais contemporain Kinotayo”.
Because of “Strawberry shortcakes” success quality-wise and box-office wise, Yazaki made more films with stories written by major writers using top-star actors, such as “Sweet little lies” (2010) , “Furin Jun-ai” (2011) , “The place where the sun sits” (2014) . And a compilation of his work, “Unaccompanied” (2016) was invited to many international film festivals, Göteborg Film Festival, Jeonju International Film Festival and so on. It won “Grand Jury Prize” at Sakhalin Film Festival.
In the 2010s, while Yazaki was filming those commercial films, he shot a couple of low-budget films also, “1＋1=11” (2012) and “XXX” (2015) with young screenwriters and actors, he then began to move himself between commercial and independent films at will.
This latest film of his, “Still Life of Memories” will be his most extreme independent film in his filmography.
Filmography
1980 Afternoon breezes
1992 March comes in like a lion
2000 Girl who picks flowers and the girl who kills insects
2006 Strawberry shortcakes
2010 Sweet little lies
2011 Furin Junai
2014 The place where the sun sits
2015 ×××（Kiss Kiss Kiss）
2016 Unaccompanied
2018 Still life of memories