Tsuru-Henry

A realistic feature shot on digital video that, like much of the work of Go Takamine, is set on the island of Okinawa. He works with local actors and musicians who speak their own language and sing. With the aid of light modern equipment, it was possible to make the film with the realism of a documentary. This technique, combined with the dedication of the people of Okinawa, made a high budget unnecessary.Protagonist Tsuru Shimabukuro is a folk singer on Okinawa, who one day happens to find the film script Love’s Love by the writer Mekaru. She decides to give it back to him. On her way to see Mekaru she meets strange people like Uncle Coser, her neighbour and the painter Yamagushiku. In the meantime, Mekaruhas lost all his money on one-armed bandits and has engrossed himself in studying ants. When the singer reaches his home, he has left for Taiwan to look for a woman. Tsuru decides to stay in the apartment with her son Henry and to film the script she found. As they are making the film, the son Henry loses touch with the difference between fiction and fact.By making a film in the film, and therein a play, Go was deliberately trying to evoke confusion between appearance and reality. The result is a real Okinawan world of machibui: a state of chaos that offers openings in mazes and does not allow for explanations.