THE GREAT PASSAGE (Japan, 2013)
Director: Yuya Ishii 
Starring: Ryuhei Matsuda, Aoi Miyazaki, Joe Odagiri, Haru Kuroki, Misako Watanabe, Chizuru Ikewaki, Kaoru Yachigusa, Kaoru Kobayashi, Go Kato 

How would you define the word “right”? Cult arthouse director Yuya Ishii (Sawako Decides) has racked up all the top honors at the Japan Academy Awards earlier this year with this deceptively simple yet immensely captivating, existential comedy/drama featuring a charmingly nerdy editor, Majime Mitsuya (Ryuhei Matsuda) who spends decades dutifully writing and compiling definitions for a “living language” dictionary entitled The Great Passage. On the surface an oddball ode to logophiles, the film is in fact a deeply humanist tribute to the power of language to connect people as well as a poignant study of life’s slow but steady progression. Beginning in the pre-Internet mid-1990s, The Great Passage starts with the passing of the massive dictionary project from longtime editor Kouhei Araki (Kaoru Kobayashi) to the solitary, socially inept Majime. As he painstakingly strives to steer the insane project into existence, he earns the friendship of his colleagues including the woman-and-booze-loving Masashi Nishioka (Joe Odagiri), as well as finding love with Kaguya Hayashi (Aoi Miyazaki), his landlord’s granddaughter. Achieving a fine balance between serious comedy and light drama, the film offers a moving meditation on the possibilities of teamwork, seeking worlds within words, and ultimately finding a reason to live.