| YIDFF Network Special Screenings |
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Hijiori, Cure Resort
(“Yunosato Hijiori—Gakko no aru saigo no ichinen”)
JAPAN / 2009 / Japanese / Color / Video / 76 min
Director: Watanabe Satoshi
Photography: Hotta Yasuhiro, JSC
Narrative Structure, Editing: Nabeshima Jun
Sound: Kubota Yukio
Narrator: Ito Soichi
Music: Sonoda Yoshinobu
Original Music: “Kashin,” composed by Kaneko Toshiro
Producer: Iizuka Toshio
Cooperation with: Nakano Rie
Production Company, World Sales: AMUR+Pandora
hijiorieiga.blog.shinobi.jp
Because of rationalization and the drop in the Japanese birthrate, many schools have been forced to close or to be consolidated with other schools. Elementary and middle schools have also been closed at the Hijiori hot spring, a famous therapeutic spa in northeastern Japan. Still, many visitors return to Hijiori and enjoy bathing as they did in the past. The spa is sustained by the efforts of the local people to protect the baths and by the proximity of the holy Mt. Gassan. At a time when regional culture is becoming increasingly homogenized, I examine and reconsider regional revitalization by looking at everyday life at the spa.
Watanabe Satoshi
Born in 1981 in Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture. While studying at Tohoku University of Art & Design, he worked on filming the folk culture of northeastern Japan. After graduation, he studied at the Image Forum film school and later under director Iizuka Toshio. He edited and did cinematography on Iizuka’s An Die Freude (2006) and cinematography for A Movie Capital Again (2007). |
Interview