Tsuki Inoue's first feature "Fuwaka no Adagio" to be presented at Yubari

by Chris MaGee

If you were reading our coverage of the 2008 Toronto Japanese Short Film Festival you'll know that I was very impressed with director Tsuki Inoue's 2007 short film "A Woman Who is Beating the Earth". Her handling of the delicate subject of domestic abuse was close to visionary and it ended up winning the 34-year-old filmmaker the Grand Prix Best at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival last year. Now this year Inoue will be returning to Yubari with her first feature film financed with the money from that award. Talk about full circle!

"Fuwaka no Adagio" stars Rei Shibasaku as a nun who through music comes to terms with what her years in service to the church have both given her and what they've taken away. This new feature will be screened alongside "A Woman Who is Beating the Earth" as well as Inoue's 2005 12-minute short, "Mademoiselle Audrey" which also stars Shibasaku, this time as a prima ballerina who is waiting for her curtain call.

Obviously there's no news at all yet as to overseas screenings or distribution for this new film, but I can only hope that the positive critical buzz that sent "A Woman Who is Beating the Earth" to festivals around the globe will do the same for "Fuwaka no Adagio".

For details on the screenings of Tsuki Inoue's films at this year's Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival click here. Thanks to CinemaCafe.net for pointing the way to this story.