“Asyl: Park and Love Hotel”

I was scouring the net this morning and came across a film that is going to be released theatrically in Japan on April 26th, but I hadn’t seen very much coverage about it on the usual sites, so I thought I’d get the word out there.

“Asyl: Park and Love Hotel” is the feature film debut of director Izuru Kumasaka. It tells the story of Tsuyako, played by actress Lily (Vital, Deadly Outlaw Rekka), who, after her husband disappeared years earlier, is struggling to run the love hotel that they once ran together. The hotel isn’t just used for the usual liaisons, though. The people in the neighbourhood frequent the roof of the hotel that has been converted into a park. It’s in this little oasis that Tsuyako crosses paths with Mika, a teenaged runaway and Tsuki, a lonely housewife.

“Asyl: Park and Love Hotel” was funded by the Pia Film Festival and won Kumasaka the Best First Feature Award at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

Here’s hoping all that attention merits a festival slot at TIFF or a DVD release here in North America. Distributors? Are you listening?

Check out the trailer below and get details about the film at the Berlinale website here: http://www.fdk-berlin.de/en/forum/program/main-program/asyl-park-and-love-hotel.html