My Wife’s Features
(“Tsuma no kao”)
JAPAN / 2001 / Japanese / Color / Video / 115 min
Director, Script, Photography, Sound: Kawamoto Akito
Editing: Kawamoto Akito, Onose Koki
Narrator: Tani Nobuko and others
Source: Kawamoto Akito
3-11-9 Yahata, Saeki-ku, Hiroshima, Hiroshima 731-5116 JAPAN
Phone & Fax: 81-82-928-0083
E-mail: akpro@do2.enjoy.ne.jp
The director’s wife Kiyoko, whom he married in 1953 when he was a student, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer as a result of her exposure to the atomic bomb. While she was facing death, other serious problems presented themselves to her in family life, namely her feud with his mother (her mother-inlaw). This was an internal abyss that she could not express openly. The documentary is a record of the director’s wife’s half-century of atomic bomb sickness under those conditions.
[Director’s Statement] I was acquainted with Ogawa Shinsuke, and he stayed over at my house once. I think it was at a private screening of Magino Village—A Tale that I remember that he nodded and encouraged my amateurish film theory. I am touched to be invited to this film festival with connections to Ogawa.
Kawamoto Akito
Born in 1927, 74 years old. After graduating from Hiroshima University in zymology (fermentation engineering) worked managing a sake factory. Began taking 8mm movies upon the birth of his eldest son. Made The Hiroshima Inside Me when his wife Kiyoko was diagnosed with atomic bomb sickness in 1968. Continues to film her experience with thyroid cancer from the stance of a husband filming his wife over the years. |
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• Japanese Panorama | My Wife’s Features | Then, She Closes Another Eye | An Error with Wings | Tei-chan’s Roots | 35.4 °C | Nippon Suicide Pact | Dialogue 1999 | Takashi and His Friends | A Patch of Blue Sky |