ALONE AGAIN IN FUKUSHIMA

A Stubborn Holdout Continues to Tend his Menagerie

Venue(s): Theater Image Forum
Until March 24 (Fri), 2023
Language: Japanese with English subtitles on dedicated tablet system (free rental).
Official website: aloneinfukushima.jp/
Theater website: www.imageforum.co.jp/theatre/
Theater website: www.imageforum.co.jp/theatre/movies/6095/
Trailer: https://bit.ly/3yB3UWV
Tariff: General: ￥1,800 / College students, seniors and members: ￥1,200 / High school and junior high school students or under and members: ￥1,100.
Advance tickets: https://www.imageforum-reserve.jp/imfr/schedule/index.php
Talk event: Visit theater website for details.

Title: 劇場版　ナオト、いまもひとりっきり (Gekijoban Naoto, Imamo Hitorikkiri)
Director: Mayu Nakamura (中村真夕)
Duration: 106 min

Filmmaker Mayu Nakamura has been in the headlines for two recent female-focused fiction features, Intimate Stranger (2022) and She Is Me, I Am Her (2023), both of which have experienced international success. But it is her documentary work that has driven and sustained her since she returned from living overseas. Among her many Japanese releases is Alone in Fukushima (2015), which focuses on a stubborn resident who insisted on remaining in the Fukushima nuclear zone following the triple disaster of March 2011. That resident, Naoto Matsumura, has spent the past 12 years tending to a menagerie of animals, some of them abandoned, others left in his care. Nakamura revisits him for her new Alone Again in Fukushima, which is playing through March 24 with English subtitles at Image Forum.

As the filmmaker notes, “There’s no end in sight for the nuclear crisis in Fukushima. The contaminated water will soon be pumped out into the ocean, a very controversial plan. And the government is trying to restart the nuclear reactors all over the country. This film gives us a chance to reflect on the situation from a more personal perspective, focusing on how Naoto and the animals have survived in the contaminated area.”

Naoto has remained in Tomioka, once an impoverished agricultural town that became quite affluent when the Fukushima Daiichi and Daini Nuclear Power Plants were built. After the disaster, the town became part of the exclusion zone and residents were forced to evacuate, with orders given for all the farm animals to be exterminated. Naoto defied the order to leave, and his neighbors defied the order to kill their cows, leaving 26 of them in Naoto’s care.

While residents have been able to return since 2017, only a few have done so. In the meantime, the Tokyo Olympics cast itself as the “Reconstruction Olympics,” with torch runners running through the empty streets of Fukushima, and Covid-19 put a further damper on efforts to revitalize the area.

Alone Again in Fukushima reintroduces Naoto and his feisty companions of the past decade: Cherry and Peach, descendants of ostriches kept as mascots at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant; Yama the pony, who has a tendency to bite; Ishi the dog, who’s afraid of the wild boars who are overrunning the nuclear zone; siblings Shiro and Sabi, cats born to an abandoned mother who are now mothers themselves; the cows, chickens and even the bees.

While his life hasn’t been easy, he hasn’t sprouted extra limbs or been stricken with cancer, as many feared when he first announced his decision to stay. As for the many lessons he’s learned, you’ll have to watch the film to hear them.

Theater Image Forum