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Sayuri Yoshinaga,one of the great actresses of modern Japanese cinema, winner of four Japan Film Academy awards, is in town to accompany director Izuru Narushima for the presentation of his CAPE NOSTALGIA in the Festival’s World Competition.
Star of over 100 films, Yoshinaga has been one of contemporary Japanese cinema’s most popular actresses since the 1960s, with her own personal following of fans known as “sayurists” (Sayurisuto). Active in public causes, she has worked especially in the anti-nuclear movement and is a well-known supporter of the Seibu Lions baseball club.
CAPE NOSTALGIA is set in a peaceful little town looking across the sea to Mt. Fuji. That’s whereEtsuko Kashiwagi runs the Cape Café. Named because of its location atop the cape where it juts out into the ocean, it is the town's favourite meeting place, where farmers, fishermen, hospital workers, clergy, and even the occasional police officer, gather to taste Etsuko's special brew and trade gossip. The two most important things in Etsuko's life are her jack-of-all-trades nephew Koji and the spring water she brings every day from a small island nearby. In every cup Etsuko brews is a prayer for the well-being of her customers, and coffee at her café is an uplifting experience for all. Koji is 45, and devoted to Etsuko, who lives in a shack beside her café. He is hot-tempered, quick to jump to conclusions and a bit of a troublemaker. Midori, who left town abruptly after quarrelling with her father Toku, a local fisherman, has come home after several years, and Etsuko senses that something is wrong. Tani, a local realtor, has been a regular customer for 30 years, and knows both Etsuko and Koji better than anyone, but he is growing distant. The winds of change have started to blow through the placid existence of the Cape Café.
Born in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan in 1961, Izuru Narushima's debut feature, The Hunter, (2004) won him Best New Director honours at the 2005 Japanese Professional Movie Awards and the Yokohama Festival. His subsequent films include Fly, Daddy, Fly! (2005), Midnight Eagle (2007),Love Fight (2008), A Lone Scalpel (2010), Admiral Yamamoto (2011), Rebirth (2011), winner of Best Director at the Japanese Academy, and A Chair on the Plains (2013).
CAPE NOSTALGIA (Fushigi Na Mikaki No Monogatari) will be shown in World Competition August 29 at 9 am and at 7 pm at the Imperial Cinema. It will be shown again at the Imperial on August 30 at 2 pm.
There will be a press conference with Ms. Yoshinaga and Mr. Narushima at the Salon Création of the Hyatt Hotel on August 29 at 2:15 pm. The film is in town along with a delegation of two score Japanese media people, representing four TV networks and eight Japanese print publications.