Screening in Memory of Onchi Hideo
Warabinokou: To the Bracken Fields
- JAPAN / 2003 / Japanese / Color / 35mm / 125 min
Director: Onchi Hideo
Script: Watanabe Hisashi
Photography: Ueda Shoji
Editing: Ogawa Nobuo
Sound: Yano Masato
Music: Saruya Toshiro
Scripter: Koki Hisako
Art Director: Saito Iwao
Story Creator: Murata Kiyoko
Cast: Ichihara Etsuko, Shimizu Mina, Ishibashi Renji, Nakahara Hitomi, Ri Reisen
Production Company: The Society of Reflecting Japanese Original Scenery by Images TIMES IN Production and Screening Assistance Provided by the Association to Support the Production and Screening of To the Bracken Fields, Executive Director Takahashi Takuya
Source: National Film Archive of Japan
A masterpiece that questions the essence of human life and death, set in a deserted place where passing the age of sixty means you must leave the village and join the other elderly who all live together on their own. Director Onchi Hideo put his heart and soul into this work, even going so far as to fund its production. He also funded the production committee he set up in Yamagata, where it was filmed. It was also a pivotal work for Takahashi, whom it led to later make numerous other films. Uncannily, Onchi would pass away in the same year as Takahashi.
Born in Tokyo, 1933. During the era of turmoil after the war, he attended Yamagata Junior High School (currently Yamagata Higashi High School) for one year. In 1955, he graduated from Keio University and joined Toho. In 1961, he made his directorial debut with Wakai okami. His most well-known films include Nyotai (1964), Akogare (1966), Izu no odoriko (1967), Meguriai (1968), and Shimantogawa (1991). He passed away in 2022 at the age of 88.
A Voiceless Cry
(Muon no sakebigoe Kimura Michio no Maginomura monogatari)- JAPAN / 2015 / Japanese / Color / Blu-ray / 122 min
Director, Script, Editing: Haramura Masaki
Photography: Sato Koichi
Sound: Matsuda Takeshi
Music: Sasaki Yoshizumi
Producers: Takahashi Takuya and others
Poet Kimura Michio was the first-born son of a peasant farmer in Magino, a hamlet in Kaminoyama, Yamagata. He lost his father in the Pacific War, and later in peacetime he found himself at the mercy of the government’s misguided agricultural policies. Beginning in his teens, for more than sixty years he toiled in the fields, provided for his family, experienced life in the village, and continued to give voice to the silenced Japanese farmer through his poems. The film is a look at Kimura’s life and poetry.
Born in 1957. In 1988, he made his directorial debut with the short film Kaihatsu to kankyo, which deals with the problem of tropical deforestation in Asia. He went on to produce many documentary films and television documentaries. His major works include Ms. Ryan, an Ama Diver (2005), Inochi tagayasu hitobito (2008), Satoyamakkotachi (2009), Ten ni sakaeru mura (2013), and Musashino (2018).
Yamagata Film School for Citizens
Rising Sun, Why So Red—70 Years After the War: A Farmer Poet’s Journey
(Hinomaru nadate akai: Noumin shijin, sengo 70 nenme no tabi)- JAPAN / 2015 / Japanese / Color / Digital File / 49 min
Director: Ito Kiyotaka
Photography: Sato Toshihiko, Sata Masahiro
Editing: Ito Kengo, Kawagoe Ai
Producers: Itagaki Masayoshi, Takahashi Takuya
Production Company: Yamagata Broadcasting Co., Ltd.
A TV documentary produced by Yamagata Broadcasting in 2015, inspired by A Voiceless Cry. The film follows Kimura Michio as he explores the area of China where his father died. Supported by and featuring YIDFF 2007 Ogawa Shinsuke Award winner director Feng Yan.
Joined Yamagata Broadcasting in 1983. Worked as a news department reporter and director of lifestyle advice programs before becoming news production department managing director. His many works include Sorezore no “ikoku no oka” Siberia yokuryusha no ima (2011, Agency for Cultural Affairs Art Festival Excellence Award), Soga to tsuzurikata (2019, Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association Excellence Award for Educational Programming).