Official selection
Tokyo International Film Festival 2021
Udine Far East Film Festival 2022
Nippon Connection 2022
Honors
Audience Award and Special Mention, Tokyo International Film Festival 2021
Director
Daigo Matsui
Producer
Satoshi Sawamura, Daisuke Wada
Writer
Daigo Matsui
Cast
Sosuke Ikematsu, Sairi Ito, Jun Kunimura, Masatoshi Nagase, Shun Sugata, Kiyohiko Shibukawa
Cinematographer
Hiroki Shioya
Editor
Ryuichi Takita
contact
Nikkatsu Corporation
“[Playful and spontaneous], grounded and achingly real.”- Mark Schilling, THE JAPAN TIMES
July 26, 2021. Teruo is turning 34. As he waters his plant, and performs his daily rehabilitative stretches, he considers his career as a dancer, behind him due to injury. The young man now works as a lightning technician, shining the spotlight on his former colleagues. In another rearview mirror: Yo, Teruo’s former partner. A cab driver, she now navigates the eerie, emptied-out streets of a COVID-stricken Tokyo. That day, as she brings a musician to her ex’s venue, she wanders backstage, as if led by a powerful sense of melancholy, or familiarity. Catching a glimpse of Teruo on stage, the memories of the past six years come flooding in.
Special Mention and Audience Award winner at the latest Tokyo International Film Festival, JUST REMEMBERING marks the return of Daigo Matsui (JAPANESE GIRLS NEVER DIE, last year’s REMAIN IN TWILIGHT) to the festival. Taking a cue from Jim Jarmusch’s classic NIGHT ON EARTH (Teruo and Yo’s shared favourite) and the American filmmaker’s mastery of the episodic format, Matsui unspools the usual rom-com into a whirlwind of flashbacks, finding, in the reverse chronology, a beautiful tool to evoke the ways we construct relationships and process memories, hopes and dreams—however dashed—over time. Starring Sosuke Ikematsu (THE TOKYO NIGHT SKY IS ALWAYS THE DENSEST SHADE OF BLUE) opposite Sairi Ito (ASAKO I & II; LIFE: UNTITLED), a screen couple for the ages, this is an unforgettable love story, and a perfect match for the upset and melancholy of the past few years on Earth. – Ariel Esteban Cayer
Showings
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