MY SUNSHINE

Coming of Age — and Intolerance — on Ice Skates

Venue(s): Shinjuku Piccadilly
September 18 (Fri), 2024 to September 24 (Thu), 2024
Language: In Japanese with English subtitles
Official website: bokunoohisama.com/
Theater website: www.smt-cinema.com/site/shinjuku/index.html
Theater website: www.smt-cinema.com/site/shinjuku/access.html
Theater website: www.smt-cinema.com/sp/ticket/
Trailer: https://bit.ly/4eIj8N1

Advance tickets: www.smt-cinema.com/sp/site/shinjuku/

Title: ぼくのお日さま (Boku no Ohisama)
Director: Hiroshi Okuyama (奥山大史)
Duration: 90 min.

Writer-director-cinematographer-editor Hiroshi Okuyama became the youngest winner in history when his debut feature, Jesus, earned the New Directors' prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival in 2018. When his sophomore feature became the only Japanese film selected for the Cannes Film Festival's official lineup earlier this year, festival director Thierry Frémaux called him "perhaps the next [Hirokazu] Kore-eda." Fortunately, you’ll have the chance to see what all the fuss is about — Okuyama’s charming-but-alarming My Sunshine will play with English subtitles for a week from October 18.

The reference to Kore-eda, Japan’s most acclaimed filmmaker, may seem premature, particularly when Okuyama's work is so delicate, so gentle, so exceedingly modest. And yet, few filmmakers have developed such a unique cinematic vision in so short a span —nor stayed so attuned to childhood emotions. (And we mustn’t neglect to mention that he was one of the writer-directors working with Kore-eda on the 2023 Netflix hit series The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House.)

His new film is set in smalltown Hokkaido, as the first flakes of snow fall. Young Takuya (Keitatsu Koshiyama), a shy boy with a stutter, isn’t the best athlete in class, no matter the sport. But one day in the rink, he’s drawn to the elegant, graceful skating of Sakura (Kiara Nakanishi), as she spins and twirls across the ice.

Her coach, Arakawa (Sosuke Ikematsu), notices Takuya watching Sakura, and when the teen attempts to imitate Sakura’s moves, recalls his own youthful passion for flashy footwork. Soon, Arakawa is coaching the two in ice-dance routines after school, intent on entering them in an upcoming competition. As the winter waxes and wanes, and interpersonal dynamics subtly shift, each of the three has moments of self-discovery. And then, Sakura makes a discovery that changes everything.

Suffused with a nostalgic glow and infectious charm, Okuyama's beautifully shot fable functions much like a memory, hazy but tinged with longing and remorse. Life-defining decisions are made, the snow melts and gradually, and the slight narrative acquires a depth that didn't seem at first possible.

Shinjuku Piccadilly