NYAFF'09 Films
BE SURE TO SHARE (JAPAN, 2009)
109 minutes, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles
Directed by: Sion Sono
Starring: Akira, Eiji Okuda
Showtimes (one screening only):
Sun July 5, 8:15pm at Japan Society (director Sion Sono and actor Eiji Okuda in attendance) [Buy Tickets].
Note: "Buy Tickets" links will take you to the IFC Center website (for shows at IFC Center) and to Japan Society website (for shows at Japan Society). Tickets for each venue must be purchased separately.
Sion Sono is best known as a cinematic provocateur who first came to Western attention when he had 54 schoolgirls leap to their deaths in front of a train to kick off his 2002 film, SUICIDE CLUB, with a big, red splat. Since then he’s kept up his reputation with movies like EXTE, about killer hair extensions and, now, with his four hour exploitation extravaganza, LOVE EXPOSURE, about God, religion, the Virgin Mary, upskirt photography, martial arts, sex and porn (also screening in this year’s festival). But what you don’t know is that he’s equally well known in Japan as a poet and that softer side of his personality gets exposed in BE SURE TO SHARE.
Featuring pop star Akira from the band EXILE in one of his first motion picture performances, you’d think this would be nothing more than a disposable flick for EXILE fans, but Sono transforms this film into a quiet meditation on death and the relationship between fathers and sons. Director and actor Eiji Okuda plays a tough-as-nails father who makes the Great Santini look like a wimp. Now, diagnosed with cancer he’s trapped in the hospital and his wife and son (Akira) spend their days visiting and trying to keep his spirits up. Just when it looks like he’s about to recover, Akira finds out that he has cancer too, and that his father may out-live him. Determined not to worry anyone, he keeps it to himself and vows that he’ll beat his disease.
Jumping backwards and forwards in time, BE SURE TO SHARE isn’t an easy-to-swallow melodrama about fathers and sons. Sono opens the film up and makes it an essay, colored with regret, about how we’re constantly running after each other, and never catching up. About the small things we do every day without thinking about them and how these tiny, insignificant moments ultimately make up our lives. We’d say it will break your heart, but Sono might object to such an easy sentiment. So how about this: by the time this movie is over, you’ll feel like your chest has been cracked in two.
Co-presented by JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film
BE SURE TO SHARE (JAPAN, 2009)
109 minutes, 35mm, in Japanese with English subtitles
Directed by: Sion Sono
Starring: Akira, Eiji Okuda
Showtimes (one screening only):
Sun July 5, 8:15pm at Japan Society (director Sion Sono and actor Eiji Okuda in attendance) [Buy Tickets].
Note: "Buy Tickets" links will take you to the IFC Center website (for shows at IFC Center) and to Japan Society website (for shows at Japan Society). Tickets for each venue must be purchased separately.
Sion Sono is best known as a cinematic provocateur who first came to Western attention when he had 54 schoolgirls leap to their deaths in front of a train to kick off his 2002 film, SUICIDE CLUB, with a big, red splat. Since then he’s kept up his reputation with movies like EXTE, about killer hair extensions and, now, with his four hour exploitation extravaganza, LOVE EXPOSURE, about God, religion, the Virgin Mary, upskirt photography, martial arts, sex and porn (also screening in this year’s festival). But what you don’t know is that he’s equally well known in Japan as a poet and that softer side of his personality gets exposed in BE SURE TO SHARE.
Featuring pop star Akira from the band EXILE in one of his first motion picture performances, you’d think this would be nothing more than a disposable flick for EXILE fans, but Sono transforms this film into a quiet meditation on death and the relationship between fathers and sons. Director and actor Eiji Okuda plays a tough-as-nails father who makes the Great Santini look like a wimp. Now, diagnosed with cancer he’s trapped in the hospital and his wife and son (Akira) spend their days visiting and trying to keep his spirits up. Just when it looks like he’s about to recover, Akira finds out that he has cancer too, and that his father may out-live him. Determined not to worry anyone, he keeps it to himself and vows that he’ll beat his disease.
Jumping backwards and forwards in time, BE SURE TO SHARE isn’t an easy-to-swallow melodrama about fathers and sons. Sono opens the film up and makes it an essay, colored with regret, about how we’re constantly running after each other, and never catching up. About the small things we do every day without thinking about them and how these tiny, insignificant moments ultimately make up our lives. We’d say it will break your heart, but Sono might object to such an easy sentiment. So how about this: by the time this movie is over, you’ll feel like your chest has been cracked in two.
Co-presented by JAPAN CUTS: Festival of New Japanese Film
