Opening Gala
Acting for Beginners
- Onsite
- 7.13 (Sat) 14:00 Audio Visual Hall
©2024 Saitama Prefecture/SKIP CITY Sai-no-Kuni Visual Plaza
Director: Takeshi KUSHIDA
Cast: Katsuya MAIGUMA, Ayaka ONISHI, Kanade IWATA, Keiichiro MORI, Toki KOINUMA, Kenji MASAKI, Hideki NAGAI
2024 / Japan / 90min.
Hozumi Chono, suffering from a rift with his father, teaches acting for beginners in an abandoned factory where time stands still. Through improvisation, he dives into the memories of Issei, a child actor whose father has passed away, and Chikako, a lonely teacher. As he explores their lives, something miraculous occurs. Acting For Beginners is directed by Takeshi Kushida, who has won numerous awards for his commercials, and whose first feature film Woman of the Photographs (20) was the only Japanese nominee for the International Competition at IDCF2020, where it received the SKIP CITY AWARD. That film went on to collect 40 awards at festivals around the world. His next work, My Mother’s Eyes (23), was also nominated forthe International Competition at IDCF2023, and he is now opening the festival this year with this, his third feature. Katsuya Maiguma, star of the festival’s 2011 Short Length Competition, Honorable Mention recipient Ken and Kazu (11), takes on the leading role. Co-starring is Ayaka Ohnishi, who starred in the festival’s 2014 Short Film Competition nominee A Piece of Dogu (14). There are also impressive performances from promising young actors who include Kanade Iwata, and Kushida regulars Toki Koinuma and Hideki Nagai.
Director: Takeshi KUSHIDA
Born in 1982 in Osaka. Works for Pyramid Film. His debut feature Woman of the Photographs (20) earned 40 awards at film festivals around the world and has been released in seven countries. After winning the SKIP CITY AWARD for that film, Kushida’s My Mother’s Eyes (23) was described at London FrightFest as paving the way for a third wave of “J-horror,” and is now being distributed worldwide.
Message
A century ago, the writer Proust said that to understand who we are, we must turn not to photographs but to memories. In our hyper-networked present, memory is shifting from an individual to a collective phenomenon. How useful, then, are memories in helping the modern person understand themselves?
Acting For Beginners tells the story of people who invade each other’s memories through improvisational acting, experiencing the miraculous as they roam the boundaries between reality and fiction.
