KONTORA

A Hypnotic Tale of Wartime Loot and Walking Backwards

Venue(s): Theater Guild Daikanyama
July 9 (Sat), 10 (Sun), 2022
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: www.kowatanda.com/kontora-theaters
Theater website: theaterguild.co/
Theater website: theaterguild.co/movie/detail/KONTORA/
Tariff: ¥3,000 with drink
Advance tickets: Visit theatre site for details.
Talk event: Guests talk after the screenings.

Title: コントラ KONTORA (Kontora)
Director: Anshul Chauhan (アンシュル・チョウハン)
Duration: 143 min

ENCORE SCREENINGS: If you’ve been following recent Japanese cinema, you’ve already seen Anshul Chauhan’s award-winning sophomore feature Kontora (a Japanized pronunciation of “contra”), which earned the Grand Prize at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (PÖFF) in late 2019, Best Film at the 2020 Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, Best Actor (for Hidemasa Mase) at the 2020 Osaka Asian Film Festival, and the inaugural Obayashi Prize at New York City’s Japan Cuts in 2020.

Whether the recognition heralds the dawn of a new era for multicultural voices in the domestic film industry is debatable, but Kontora manages to be Japan-specific and universal at the same time, with a directorial vision that feels both authentic and utterly unique. Chauhan, whose earlier career was spent as an animator, shot Kontora in just 10 days with gifted Estonian cinematographer Maxim Golomidov, who also lensed his first feature, Bad Poetry Tokyo.

The haunting black-and-white film is both a richly layered family drama and an allegorical depiction of the inextricable ties binding our past to our present. And it features one of the oddest, most memorable characters in recent cinema.

Kontora tells the story of Sora (Wan Marui), a rebellious high schooler who lives in the countryside with her boozy, widowed father (Taichi Yamada) and beloved grandfather. When the latter dies, Sora discovers his WWII journal, which contains his vivid recollections of the horrors of war (the quotes are from real letters written by young Japanese soldiers). It also contains hints that there is treasure buried in the nearby forest, and Sora becomes obsessed with finding it.

On one of her scouting trips, she comes across a strange homeless man (Mase) walking backwards into town. When his aimless journey is violently interrupted that night, Sora insists on helping him. But the enigmatic stranger is mute and otherwise otherworldly. As her obsession with the buried treasure comingles with her interest in the peculiar man, her fractious relationship with her father begins to shatter.

Theater Guild