ANIMATION
OKINAWA SHORTS
THE PATH OF
KUMIODORI
Directors: Atsushi Sunagawa
and Chikako Yamashiro
Japan, 2013
Takeshi works for museum personnel as well as a performer of Ryukyuan performing art "KUMIODORI" in the night. His son Takenoshin is lonely, his father doesn't back home until midnight every day. One day, Takenoshin goes to the theatre with his mother and unexpectedly meet incarnation of traditional Ryukyuan performing art "MARUMUN" who lives in the theatre.
RUMAH
Director: Yosep Anggi Noen
Indonesia and Japan, 2015
Ayumi has been working as an information call center operator for the past 10 years. The phone doesn’t ring much anymore. Ayumi is plagued by feelings of emptiness and loneliness. One day, Ayumi is summoned by her boss to be suddenly told she would be laid off. She returns to her parents’ house as if drawn there for some reason.
TREASURE HUNT
Director: Takako Miyahira
Japan, 2016
“Wanna know a secret?”. Lan, the new, quiet girl in class gives Mie and Hana an origami rabbit. In the rabbit’s folds hides a treasure map. Answering riddles one by one leads Mie and Hana to an adventure through Naha, a city shared by the old and the new, children and grownups. Between Lan’s lies and truths, the two find a great treasure hidden in the City.
THE DEER IN ME
Director: Kenji Tabuchi
Japan, 2012
Asuka, an actress from Tokyo visits Aka Island in Okinawa, the southern islands of Japan. High-school student Takeshi, the son of the owner of a guest house, is to show her around with his heart pounding. When Asuka walks around, she happens to see a Black sika Deer, it raises painful personal memories. But through the day-to-day life on the island with Takeshi, her mood gradually gets changed.
GOAT-WALKING
Director: Ryugo Nakamura
Japan, 2008
In a peaceful village of Yambaru an old man raises and cherishes a goat for his son’s traditional wedding meal. On the fateful day the goat runs away from the old man’s house. It looks like the goat realised he is going to be killed. The goat runs from place to place, then she meets the boy who is sitting on the beach alone. They say nothing but understand each other. Is it fate?
INDIGO LOVE
Director: Sachiko Judy Fukumoto
Japan, 2012
A busy Taiwanese actress Meiling is troubled by many incidents that happen on her vacation on Okinawa island. It is her first experience traveling all by herself. She meets a guy who is supposed to be staff at the luxury hotel she reserved at Naha International Airport, but there is something wrong... Her vacation mood is completely ruined.
MOTHER OF THE GROOM
Director: Tsukasa Kishimoto
Japan, 2011
After leaving home several years ago, Higa Eiichi and Ito Shiori, announce their marriage and return to Okinawa from Tokyo. Eiichi finds his father has passed away and his mother and grandmother are less than pleased with the marriage. The couple desperately want their marriage accepted and Shiori must clear the high hurdle of helping with ‘Ukui’, an Okinawa traditional ceremony that welcomes back the ancestors of each household on the 13th-16th of July in the lunar calendar.
THE CHOSEN ONE
Director: Gori
Japan, 2017
Aboard a cruise ship heading from Taiwan to Ishigakijima, a young Taiwanese man (Yenda Chen) is staring at a letter as he ponders to himself: “Am I the chosen one?”
Set in Ishigakijima, Okinawa Prefecture, one of the Top 3 Star-gazing Sites in Japan, this film is a heartwarming comedy about an insecure young man’s destiny and how it begins to change because of a message found in a bottle by the seaside.