Chigasaki Story

Misawa Takuya is a young filmmaker (1987) who hasn’t even yet graduated from the Japan Institute of the Moving Image, but his film breathes nostalgia for the history of cinema. In Chigasaki Story, so much colour has been bled from the image that the film could be remembered as black-and-white, even though it wasn’t shot in black-and-white.
The film has an extremely light touch and doesn’t stick to a single predominant narrative line. During a weekend, students and lecturers come together for a wedding. This takes place in Chigasakikan Hotel, where the film master Ozu Yasujiro retired to write his screenplays. It’s not that the director simply follows on from Ozu; he also seems to have taken a good look at playful French classics.
Repressed and occasionally open irritations and infatuations, old and new , flare up between the various characters in the hotel. Kiki Sugino, who was in the Tiger Awards jury at the festival last year, produced the film and plays a minor role as a teacher.