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DOKURITSU SHONEN GASSHOUDAN
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Japan
2000 / 35 mm / Color / 130 min.
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BOYS' CHOIR / LA CHORALE DES GAR�ONS
Soon after the death of his father, fifteen-year-old Michio is sent to a Catholic boys' orphanage in northern Japan. Awkward and unable to speak without stuttering, he finds it nearly impossible to get along in his new environment. Michio's classmate, Yasuo, helps him. As the star soprano in the school choir, Yasuo quickly gets Michio to join the group and the two boys become fast friends. Choirmaster Seino's old schoolmate Satomi, arrives on the run after setting off a bomb in Tokyo. Seino, whose activist days are passed, refuses to give her refuge and even forbids Satomi to give Yasuo a record of his favourite singing group -- the Vienna Choir Boys. One night, two plainclothes policemen discover Satomi. In desperation, she blows herself up with a stick of dynamite as Seino and the boys watch in horror. With the explosion, a faraway, unruly world threatens to shatter the boys' idyllic existence. After summer break in Tokyo, which Yasuo spent marching in demonstrations and lamenting Satomi's death with her friends at university, he returns to school only to find that his magnificent soprano voice has now dropped to bass. He is so embarrassed by his new voice that he presses Michio into service as his personal interpreter. Yasuo tries in vain to whip his fellow choristers into revolutionary frenzy, forcing them to wear red bandanas as they sing a spirited Red Army song in training for the upcoming choral competition...
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Script: Kenji Aoki.
Phot.: Masami Inomoto.
Ed.: Shuichi Kakesu.
Mus.: Shinichiro Ikebe.
Cast: Atsushi Ito, Sora Toma, Taruyuki Kagawa, Ryoko Takizawa, Ken Mitsuishi, Reita Serizawa, Jun Kunimura, Shigeru Izumiya, Kihachi Okamoto.
Prod.: Takenori Sento, Suncent CinemaWorks, Inc., 1-12-9 Hiratsuka # 8, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 142-0051 (Japon), t�l.: (81-3) 5749 25 01, fax: (81-3) 5749 23 41 / Wowow Japan Satellite Broadcasting Inc., 1-5-8 Motoakasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8080 (Japon), t�l.: (81-3) 5414 81 75, fax: (81-3) 5414 81 82 / Bandai Visual Co. Ltd..
Sales: Ida Martins, Media Luna Entertainement, Hochstadenstrasse 1-3, 50684 Cologne (Allemagne), t�l.: (49-221) 139 22 22, fax: (49-221) 139 22 24, e-mail: [email protected].
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Akira Ogata
Born in Saga prefecture, Japan in 1959, Akira Ogata studied at Fukuoka University in Tokyo where he made the short film, Tokyo Hakusai Kankeisha (1980), and met director Sogo Ishii, on whose early films (KURUZAKI THUNDER ROAD, among others) he worked as an assistant director. After graduating, he apprenticed under several directors, including Kazuki Omori and Banmei Takahashi. He has directed television dramas, documentaries and music videos. BOYS' CHOIR marks his debut in fiction features. |
