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Dear Etranger

(Osanago warera ni umare, ??????????)

+ Director Q&A

Dir. Yukiko Mishima
2017 | 127 mins | Japan
Japanese with English Subtitles

Showing Times:

• Wed 27 Mar: 7pm

Makoto (Tadanobu Asano) is a career-driven, middle-aged patriarch of a patchwork family. Married to his second wife and unable to establish a connection with his rebellious elder step-daughter, he struggles to make time for his new family while trying to remain on good terms with his daughter from the previous marriage. Keeping all the plates spinning proves to be a herculean task as he is beset with blows in increasing frequency; soon, even his lucrative job is in jeopardy. As current wife Nanae (Rena Tanaka) announces she’s carrying his child, the story delves deeper into considerations of complicated family units and the consequences of divorce and remarriage. 

A Stitch of Life director, Yukiko Mishima, trifles with Japanese family drama conventions, taking fresh and unexpected trajectories in her adaptation of Kiyoshi Shigematsu’s 1996 novel. Winner of the Special Grand Prix of the Jury Award at the 2017 Montreal World Film Festival.

PRE-FILM DINING

Enjoy a specially prepared two-course meal in our Café Bar before watching the film on Wed 27 Mar.

£15: Cinema and meal ticket
£18.95: Cinema, meal and glass of wine 

PART OF THE JAPAN FOUNDATION TOURING FILM PROGRAMME 2019

PEOPLE STILL CALL IT LOVE: PASSION, AFFECTION AND DESTRUCTION IN JAPANESE CINEMA

Love, in all its semblances and dimensions, is a state so universally experienced by humankind that it has provided a perpetual source of inspiration in the long history of global cinema.

The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2019 features thoughtfully selected works from Japan’s artistic repertoire, all focusing on this theme in one way or another. As the conventional binaries defining what it means to love continually give way to new understandings of this sweeping emotion, so too does this year’s curation aim to provide insights into a wider context of love in Japanese society.

VENUE: EXETER PHOENIX, STUDIO 74