IFFR 2006

Nagasaki Shunichi

Coming to terms with Nagasaki's motorcycle crash on 9 November 1980 is motivation and subject here. Apparently aimless street scenes and outbursts of violence.

Nagasaki Shunichi - Focus

After That

Film noir and hard-boiled love story shot in black &amp; white and on video, with wonderful camerawork, montage and casting about the hard female cop Miki who makes a minor error and then has to clean up the tracks. With a cameo role by director Tsukamoto Shinya.

Dogs

Beautiful thriller and wonderful psychological portrait. Muroi Shigeru - also the star of Heart Beating in the Dark - sparkles as a woman who shop is in danger of going bankrupt while her staff and ex-lover wants to stop. In order to earn money, she decides to kidnap a girl. And then another.

The Drive

Stylised, idiosyncratic thriller with a typical mixture of sensuality and irrationality. The psychiatrist Sotomura becomes fascinated by his patient Miyako, who says she has been attacked by her lesbian lover. Despite - or thanks to - worrying events, his obsession grows.

The Enchantment

A remake, a sequel and the making of Nagasaki's Super8 classic of the same name resulted in a gripping, many layered moral tale. What has become of the protagonists, 20 years later? How would a comparable couple now manage? And what does it mean to make a film about a pair of parents who killed their child?

Heart, Beating in the Dark (new version)

This Super8 film that is not well enough known is one of the Modernist Japanese classics of the 1980s. A young couple borrows a friend's apartment for the night. Between the rough sex and food poisoning, it slowly becomes clear what their gruesome secret is. With brave performances by a very young Muroi and Naito.

Heart, Beating in the Dark (original version)

Nagasaki is in London for the screening of Heart, Beating in the Dark. He hangs around and roams the streets looking for an old girlfriend

London Calling

Nagasaki's first 35mm film is an emotional story about the biker who doesn't want a ride his bike after his best friend deliberately killed himself on the bike. That friend and enemy expects the loll of him during the reunion a year later. Director and crew members only just survived a serious motorbike accident during shooting.

The Lonely Hearts Club Band in September

Unusual, tragicomic three-cornered relationship refers to Jules et Jim, but is about real people. The life of a urban planning official and that of an old fellow student, now project developer, are turned upside down by a chance encounter with a beauty obsessed by UFOs.

Some Kinda Love

Nagasaki turns the demands of the genre to his hand in this direct-to-video thriller. A stranger first gives a female taxi driver too much tip, but then suddenly starts a series of violent attacks. Without understanding the reasons, all she can do is fight back. Fear and loathing in the dark streets of Tokyo.

Stranger

Nagasaki's film about the explosion of a group of friends is situated in the music business. A female vocalist breaks with her manager and sets to work with an old man of his band. The involvement of the gay, Super8 addicted friend of the manager leads to increasingly high waves of frustration, treachery, humiliation and cruelty.

The Summer Yuki Gave Up Rock Music

Stunning drama with elegant, labyrinthine plot about the disappearance of a girl aged five. The mother continues to fantasise about her return, while Nagasaki slowly reveals the truth (?). A masterpiece.

A Tender Place

Very personal, experimental video made for the satellite channel Wowow, about the three cornered relationship between a radio DJ and two very different women.

IFFR 2025
30 Jan – 9 Feb 2025