For his ambitious graduation film, Mariko Tetsuya himself drew a Japanese comic strip that he based on the American newspaper strip Yellow Kid. In the film, the shy comic-strip author Hattori is working on a story about the famous boxer Mikuni – who has a relationship with Hattori’s ex. Hattori meets the untalented boxer Tamura. Tamura in turn dreams of beating Mikuni and meanwhile neglects his senile mother. Tamura turns out to be a great fan of Hattori’s manga strips, especially of Yellow Kid. The artist then decides to make a sequel, with Tamura in the heroic leading role and with Mikuni as the bad guy. ‘The image of someone else becomes your reality,’ he says to Tamura. And then reality and fantasy start getting mixed up in a confusing way.
Film details
- Country of production
- Japan
- Year
- 2009
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2010
- Length
- 106'
- Medium/Format
- HDcam
