[1999]

Butoh, Okura

(“Okura-mura, odoru otoko”)
Director: SUZUKI Toshiaki

1999 Japanese Subtitled in - Color 16mm 35 min

Production Company: Omiya Visual Image Productions
Producer: OMIYA Koichi
Photography: TOKIDA Takashi, MATSUMARU Takehiko
Editing:
Music: SUZUKI Haruyuki
Sound: SHIMIZU Kyo 		  International Sales: Omiya Visual Image Productions
502 Onishi Bldg., 5-32-6 Sendagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 151-0051 JAPAN
Phone: 81-3-3353-0636
Fax: 81-3-3354-1958
E-mail:

[Festivals and prizes] Yamagata IDFF ’99, Kathmandu Mountain Festival

[Synopsis] The small mountain village of Okura’s charm and problems are highlighted by a local butoh dancer’s art.
Featuring the butoh dancer Mori Shigeya and the natural landscape of Yamagata, in northern Japan, where he comes from. Though at first one may see only an ordinary mountain village covered with snow, a strange spatial dimension is created through Mori’s dance. Images include those of ordinary villagers and Filipinas who have married into traditional families as so-called “mail order brides.” The village is steeped in pre-modern traditions, natural space, and problems of contemporary society.


SUZUKI Toshiaki

After graduating from Tokyo Zokei University in March 1982, worked as an assistant director for cultural and educational films and TV dramas. Freelance director from 1988. Recent works include Summer I Danced in Pusan, and The Complete Song Book of Japanese Animation, both for cable TV.