INDEX OF FILMS - Raindance Film Festival

AUTUMN ADAGIO [FUWAKU NO ADAGIO]
FRIDAY 8 OCTOBER AT 9:30PM
A nun going through her menopause might sound like the
punch-line of a joke you wouldn’t tell your mum, but Tsuki Inoue’s
disarmingly beautiful film Autumn Adagio takes what could have
so easily been a premise ripe for exploitation and makes from it a
profoundly moving and utterly restrained masterpiece.
Mariko, who is first seen absent-mindedly plucking the stamen
from a bouquet of lilies, lives a cloistered, routine life. One day,
confused by the way she is feeling, she takes a leap of faith and
volunteers to play the piano for the local ballet school. Whilst
working she becomes entranced by the instructor’s graceful
movements in a scene that is both gently surreal and quietly
erotic. Although she plays well, the instructor tries to encourage
her to put more of herself into the music. Moriko, who has spent
her life repressing her sexuality and emotions, decides to let them
out for a short time before they are lost forever and we can’t help
but be swept along with her new enthusiasm.
From then on the film is by turns disturbing, tragic and uplifting
as she learns to reengage with the world. More and more we
start to see her without her habit, and the change is striking. The
tension between religion and sexuality has been explored in many
films, but rarely has it been handled with such sensitivity. DB
Country Japan Running Time 70 mins Format HDCam Director/Producer/
Screenplay Tsuki Inoue DoP Yosuke Omori Cast Rei Shibakusa, Peyton Chiba, Takuo
Shibuya Print Source Dongyu Email dongyu.international@dongyu.co.jp
104 18TH RAINDANCE FILM FESTIVAL