Tsuyukusa
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Muranów
Muranów
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Film description
The leaves of the “dew herb” tell the story of Fumi, a middle-aged woman who spends her days working in a textile factory and her evenings at a support group. She feels her life is stagnant and empty, and the daily routine does not bring her peace. When her car is struck by a meteorite, Fumi decides to see this as a good omen. She abandons her skepticism, and decides to accept fate with open arms and an open mind. When she hears a man play a romantic melody on the leaves of tsuyukusa, the “dew herb” or Asiatic dayflower, she wants to keep the sound of the plant with her for good.
The acclaimed genre director Hideyuki Hirayama employs poetics reminiscent of Naoko Ogigami to tell this gentle and unhurried everyday story of a village on the Izu Peninsula. He paints a truly soothing portrait of a tight-knit community, the repetitiveness of daily life, collective rituals, casual conversations and the distinctive mood of a place where everyone knows each other. Hirayama is deliberate in slowing the rhythm of his narration; his patient lens allows us to slowly discover the psychology of his characters, battered and damaged by life, and form a bond with them. The music of the “dew herb” will stay with you for long, as will the cleansing energy suffusing this movie.
text:
Łukasz Mańkowski
Hideyuki Hirayama
Born in 1950 in Fukuoka. Japanese cinema and television director. Debuted in 1990, but his breakthrough came in 1995 with School Ghost Stories, a massive box office hit in Japan. In 1998, festival audiences and critics praised his Begging for Love. Hirayama’s work ranges from genre cinema to dramas.
1990 Maria’s Stomach / Maria no ibukuro
1995 Gakkō no kaidan / School Ghost Stories
1996 Gakkō no kaidan 2 / School Ghost Stories 2
1998 Begging for Love / Ai o kou hito
1999 Gakkō no kaidan 4 / School Ghost Stories 4
2002 A Laughing Frog / Warau kaeru
2011 Oba: The Last Samurai / Taiheiyō no kiseki: Fokkusu to yobareta otoko
2016 Everest – The Summit of the Gods / Kamigami no Itadaki
2022 Liście komeliny / Tsuyukusa