2 Duo

Yu works as shop assistant in a boutique and lives with Kei, a boy with acting ambitions. After an insignificant quarrel, Kei suggests getting married. His suggestion confuses her and she starts wondering who he is. One day Yu leaves: she goes on a journey to rediscover her balance. What can this couple do? They don’t seem able to live with or without each other.2 Duo is the feature début by Suwa Nobuhiro. He previously worked as assistant director to Yamamoto Masashi and has several television documentaries to his name. This experience was valuable to him in making this ambitious film in which the script written earlier, improvisations on the set and documentary elements are fused into an organic whole. Suwa asked his actors to forget the script. Following many rehearsals he eventually came to the film version. The film has acquired extra layersthrough the inclusion of interviews with the actors. The leading role of Yu is played by Yu Eri, an actress who played a special role in Kumashiro Tatsumi’s video film Immoral: midarana kankei (1994). The film’s photography is by Tamura Masaki, who had previously shot Takamine Go’s Untamagiru (1989) (screened at the 1991 festival). His documentary ‘signature’ lent itself superbly for this film.