Directed by:
沖田修一Screenplay:
沖田修一Cast:
Tsutomu Yamazaki, Kirin Kiki, Ryō Kase, Kaito Yoshimura, Ken Mitsuishi, 青木崇高, Mitsuru Fukikoshi, 池谷のぶえ, Yasuhiro Koseki, Hiroshi MikamiPlots(1)
No one thing. By the time Morikazu Kumagai finishes painting this single phrase, he’s short of breath and ready for his afternoon nap. But Kumagai is more than the spacey, endearingly blasé, and quirky Zen wizard this film might have you believe. Kumagai, in real life, was a famous painter – passed now for forty-one years – and known for his reclusive lifestyle. With two of Japan’s most revered actors (including the late Kirin Kiki) in a charming biopic covering a single day in his life, we learn that Kumagai refused to stray beyond his yard, preferring to socialize with his endless garden of critters and crawlies. Close-ups of June bugs, ants, and butterflies are not for the faint-of-heart, but the upbeat music, laugh-out-loud comedic beats, and cure-your-grumpiness atmosphere of the film gradually eases us into the understanding that Mori, The Artist's Habitat, is actually itself about no one thing in particular – no narrative arc to be traced, no dramatic plot point to arrange the film around. And yet the point is clear as day that none of that is needed when you have a character as loveable as Mori. (San Diego Asian Film Festival)
(more)Cast
Tsutomu Yamazaki
Japan
Best movies:
High and Low (1963)
Red Beard (1965)
Departures (2008)
Kirin Kiki
Japan
Best movies:
The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)
Half a Confession (2004)
Like Father, Like Son (2013)
Ryō Kase
Japan
Best movies:
Nobody Knows (2004)
I Just Didn't Do It (2006)
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Kaito Yoshimura
Japan
Best movies:
Mio on the Shore (2019)
100 Yen Love (2014)
Sekigahara (2017)
Ken Mitsuishi
Japan
Best movies:
Eureka (2000)
I Just Didn't Do It (2006)
Love Letter (1995)
青木崇高
Japan
Best movies:
Heavenly Forest (2006)
True Mothers (2020)
Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)
Mitsuru Fukikoshi
Japan
Best movies:
The Twilight Samurai (2002)
Our Mother (2008)
Love Exposure (2008)
池谷のぶえ
Japan
Best movies:
Yasuhiro Koseki
Japan
Hiroshi Mikami
Japan
Best movies:
Tokyo Pop (1988)
Swallowtail & Butterfly (1996)
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985)