by Chris MaGeeIt's always exciting to see the latest offering from such well known directors as Hirokazu Koreeda, Mamoru Oshii or Takeshi Kitano, you'll get no argument from me there; but what I think is really exciting is a chance to see a new film from a director that you haven't heard of. Leave it up to the programmers for the Toronto International Film Festival for giving us that chance once again.
This year TIFF will be hosting the international premiere of Hajime Kadoi's sophomore film "Vacation (Kyuka)". It tells the story of prison guard Hirai (Kaoru Kobayashi) who forges an unlikely friendship with Kaneda, a death row prisoner (Hidetsohi Nishikima), eventually volunteering to be his "crutch" or the guard who must restrain the prisoner as they make their way to the gallows for execution as well as support their corpse after they’ve been hanged. As is customary for guards volunteering for this potentially traumatic position, Hirai is granted one week of vacation leading up to the execution. He uses this time to take part in an "omiai", a meeting arranged between marriage candidates, which in Hirai's case means acquainting himself with a single mother named Mika (Nene Otsuka) and her young son. Rounding out the cast is the ubiquitous Ren Osugi who also starred in Kadoi’s 2007 directorial debut “Tana no Sumi”.
Japanese cinema fans will be especially interested to know that “Vacation” is adapted from a short story by the Yomiuri Prize-winning author Akira Yoshimura whose novel “Yami ni Hirameku” was the basis of Shohei Imamura’s 1997 Palm d’Or-winning film “The Eel”, another story dealing with crime and punishment in contemporary Japan .
Check out the trailer for Kadoi’s “Vacation (Kyuka)” below and while you’re at it head over to the film’s official site here.
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