The Hungry Lion

  • 78'
  • Japan
  • 2017

A high-school teacher is arrested for having sexual relations with a minor. Young Hiromi finds herself in the eye of the storm when she is suspected of featuring in her teacher’s leaked sex video. Hiromi is stunned as her friends and family question her innocence, and predators abuse her online and offline. In what turns out to be one of the film’s only close-ups, we see a shot of an eye with a contact lens being placed on it, asking us to see through the cloud of confusion.

In this portrayal of the culture of fake news where rumours become hard truths, director Ogata Takaomi tells what could be a sensationalist story, with an assured and undramatised delivery. The coldness of his distant observation counters the pressure that builds to an inevitable boiling point.

  • 78'
  • Japan
  • 2017
Director
Ogata Takaomi
Premiere
International premiere
Country of production
Japan
Year
2017
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
78'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Ueta Lion
Language
Japanese
Producers
Ogata Takaomi, Onogawa Hiroyuki
Sales
GETA FILMS / Spirits Project Inc.
Screenplay
Ogata Takaomi, Ikeda Fuki
Cinematography
Nigishi Kenichi
Editor
Sawai Yumi
Cast
Matsubayashi Urara, Tsutsui Mariko, Mizuishi Atomu, Sugai Tomomi, Hidaka Nanami, Kato Sakiko, Uehara Miku
Director
Ogata Takaomi
Premiere
International premiere
Country of production
Japan
Year
2017
Festival Edition
IFFR 2018
Length
78'
Medium
DCP
Original title
Ueta Lion
Language
Japanese
Producers
Ogata Takaomi, Onogawa Hiroyuki
Sales
GETA FILMS / Spirits Project Inc.
Screenplay
Ogata Takaomi, Ikeda Fuki
Cinematography
Nigishi Kenichi
Editor
Sawai Yumi
Cast
Matsubayashi Urara, Tsutsui Mariko, Mizuishi Atomu, Sugai Tomomi, Hidaka Nanami, Kato Sakiko, Uehara Miku