Completed - JAPANESE - Historical - 126 minutes
A century ago in the period of silent motion pictures, the katsudo-benshi , known as katsuben, aroused audiences by providing live narration to films. A young man, dreaming to become a pro katsuben, works as an assistant in a theater. He soon blossoms his talent for narration, but...
Year of production : 2019 Director(s) : Masayuki SUO Cast : Ryo NARITA, Yuina KUROSHIMA, Naoto TAKENAKA, Eri WATANABE, Masatoshi NAGASE, Kengo KORA, Mao INOUE, Takuma OTOO, Fumiyo KOHINATA, Yutaka TAKENOUCHI Producer(s) : Shoji MASUI (Altamira Pictures, inc.), Shintaro HORIKAWA (Altamira Pictures, inc.), Takao TSUCHIMOTO (Altamira Pictures, inc.), Kazuhito AMANO (TOEI COMPANY, LTD.)
Shuntaro Someya, who idolized a katsudo benshi he watched at a motion picture house during his childhood, dreams of “captivating the viewers with narrations that stir their hearts.” However, he currently works with a group of thieves as a phony katsudo benshi. Shuntaro, who can’t bear being a phony anymore, runs away from the thieves and finds himself at Aoki-kan, a small-town movie theater. The screenings at Aoki-kan are always practically empty since it lost its staff and customers to a rival theater in a neighboring town. Shuntaro starts working at Aoki-kan and is excited at the prospect of finally becoming a real katsudo benshi. However, the theater is full of quirky, over-the-top individuals—the owner of the theater and his wife who treat him like a slave, a drunk katsudo benshi, a vain and arrogant katsudo benshi, and a cantankerous, hard-to-please projectionist. On top of that, Shuntaro is targeted by a vicious thief because of a large sum of money he stole from the group and is even marked by a relentless police detective who is working on the case. He must survive the biggest crisis of his life before he can focus on pursuing his dream. Then one day, he is reunited with his first love, a friend with whom he spent his childhood discussing their dreams. Will Shuntaro be able to achieve his dream professionally and romantically?!
Country(ies) : JAPAN
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Busan IFF 2019 A Window on Asian Cinema