MY DARLING OF THE MOUNTAINS – TOKUICHI IN LOVE (YAMA NO ANATA – TOKUICHI NO KOI)

Japan - 2008 - 35 mm, 94 min.

Director:
  KATSUHITO ISHII
Sript: Hiroshi Shimizu
Production: Cine Bazar, Fuji Television Network
Cast: Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Ryo Kase, Maiko, Shinichi Tsutsumi
Section:
  AS-Asian Selection
Screenings:
Cines Aribau Club 2 - 01/05 - 20:00
Cine Rex - 06/05 - 20:00

Tokuichi and Fukuichi are two blind masseurs plying their trade around the hot springs on the Izu Peninsula, in 1930’s Japan. The two have trained their other senses to perceive much about the world others cannot see. Those powers of perception impress tourists at a summer health resort. Guests include hiking groups, a boy and his uncle, and an unidentified thief, but Tokuichi is fixated on an alluring woman from Tokyo. Director Ishii has always been hard to pin down, but this gently paced film is a complete U-turn from his usual surrealism-laced work. Its simple yet telling narrative is full of charm and hilarious moments. A faithful remake of Shimizu Hiroshi's 1938 classic The Masseuses and a Woman, My Darling of the Mountains is a subtle and handsomely shot film sprinkled with physical comedy and beautifully backdropped by authentic Japanese countryside locations. Ishii intended to make a film that his parents would enjoy, a tribute to cinema of days gone by. The result is a visual delight, a film of calm elegance that puts you at ease, just as staying at any of these resorts would do.

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