MAGIC KIMONO

A Lonely Japanese Woman Comes Out of Her Shell in Fairytale Europe

Venue: Uplink
August 24 (Thu), 2017: 20:00
Official website: www.futarimovie.com/
Theater website: www.uplink.co.jp/movie/2017/48799
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E55730Aym_Y
Tariff:  ￥1,500
Talk event: Jason Gray (Producer, Loaded Films), Eiko Mizuno-Gray (Producer, Loaded Films), Miyuki Takamatsu (Moderator, Free Stone Productions)

Title: ふたりの旅路 (Futari no Tabiji)
Director: Maris Martinsons (マーリス・マルティンソーンス)
Duration: 99 min

There is magic in abundance in Magic Kimono, the haunting but playful new film starring Japan’s two most internationally acclaimed actors, Kaori Momoi (Ghost in the Shell, Memoirs of a Geisha) and Issey Ogata (Silence, Tony Takitani).

Momoi and Ogata are reuniting onscreen for the first time since Alexander Sokurov’s 2006 The Sun, and they perform an elaborate, enigmatic pas de deux that is just as delicious to behold as the film’s many culinary treats.

Magic Kimono marks the third collaboration between Latvian writer-director Maris Martinsons and Momoi, following Amaya (2010), which was Latvia’s official Academy Award nominee, and Latvian-US thriller Oki (2014). Martinsons specializes in stories about overcoming loss, and in Momoi, he has found his muse.

As the film begins, Keiko (Momoi) reluctantly joins a local group of women traveling to Riga, Latvia from Kobe to participate in a kimono show. Keiko has been living in a shell for decades, following the tragic loss of her daughter and immediately thereafter, her husband, who disappeared during the 1995 Kobe Earthquake. Unable to move on, she has found solace in food. But she does not overeat; she savors each bite with evident enjoyment, admitting that the modest act reminds her she is still alive.

Keiko packs a particularly cherished kimono for the journey to Northern Europe, and it is this, we gradually come to realize, that leads to all that is to come. During the kimono show, she is suddenly confronted by a man who seems to be her long-lost husband (Ogata). Or is he? She is clearly distraught, but she does not allow him to speak with her. Keiko dashes out of the show and wanders the city, where the man follows but does not intrude. He appears again during a photo shoot with her in a beautiful palace, and again when she is recruited to appear on a popular cultural show on TV, demonstrating her culinary skills. (Latvian celebrity chef Martins Sirmais served as food consultant on the film.) Finally, Keiko relents and speaks with her husband, and through their conversation, finally understands how she can reconcile her future with the past.

The first-ever feature film coproduction between Japan and the Baltics, Magic Kimono was shot with the full cooperation of sister cities Kobe and Riga, and it is gorgeously lensed, with impressive views of both locations. But it is Riga’s art nouveau architecture and its fairytale-like Old Town settings that prove most breathtaking.

Tokyo Filmgoer is thrilled that our friends at Loaded Films, Eiko Mizuno Gray and Jason Gray, the film’s producers, will be appearing after the screening to talk about the groundbreaking experience of making the film. Don’t miss this opportunity!

Uplink