Milestone Film & Video presents: A Film by Yoichi Higashi …

Milestone Film & Video presents:
A Film by Yoichi Higashi

                                   Village of Dreams
                               (Eno Nakano Bokuno Mura)

                                   A Milestone Film Release
                    P.O. Box 128 · Harrington Park, New Jersey 07640-0128
             Phone (201) 767-3117 · Fax (201) 767-3035 · Email: milefilms@aol.com
                                    www.milestonefilms.com


Village of Dreams
(Eno Nakano Bokuno Mura)

Director: Yoichi Higashi.
Cinematography: Yoshio Shimizu.
Screenplay by Yoichi Higashi and Takehiro Nakajima.
Music by the Caterina Ancient Music Ensemble.
Art Direction: Akira Naito.
Set Direction: Shoichi Yasuda.
Lighting by Hiromichi Takeyama.
Recording by Hiroshi Tsurumaki.
Assistant Director: Satoshi Isaka
Produced by Tetsujiro Yamagami and Koshiro Sho.
Sponsored by the Japan Arts Fund.
A Milestone Film Release.

Cast:
Keigo Matsuyama        Seizo
Shogo Matsuyama        Yukihiko
Mieko Harada           Mizue Tashima
Kyozo Nagatsuka        Kenzo Tashima
Hosei Komatsu          Jimma
Kaneko Iwasaki         Toshie
Tokuko Sugiyama        Ushibamba
Koichi Ueda            the Principal
Mizuki Mamada          Ikuko
Takehiro Nakajima      the Mayor
YukihikoTashima        as himself
Hideko Tashima         as herself
Seizo Tashima          as himself

Based on the autobiography The Village of My Paintings by Seizo Tashima.
Japan. 1996. 112 minutes. Fujicolor. 1:1.85. 35mm.
Silver Bear Winner: Berlin Film Festival 1996.

Identical twin brothers Yukihiko and Seizo are famous artists embarking on a collaboration -- a
book based on their idyllic childhood in a remote hamlet near Kochi. Their beautiful paintings
sweep us back to 1948, when they were in third grade. Known to everyone as "the brats," the two
grapple with catfish in the river, chase birds in the woods, and cause general mischief in the village
and school. But the plot is secondary to the film's wonderfully vibrant sensations of childhood --
the rich details of family life, the unintentional cruelty of youth, the mysteriously beautiful nature
that envelopes them, the strong emotional bond between the twins, the fierce fights they enter into a
the drop of a hat -- are as memorable as any film in the last decade. Director Yoichi Higashi's
sixteenth film in a praise-filled career is a charming and sparkling jewel.

Synopsis:
Identical twin brothers Yukihiko and Seizo Tashima are award-winning painters and book
illustrators. The brothers were born and raised in a tiny village in Kochi district -- an idyllic rural
setting which has influenced their very different artistic styles. One lazy summer day, Seizo visits
his brother's studio; the two artists are to work together on a new book based on their shared
childhood.

Their drawings sweep us back to 1948, to a rustic hamlet in the countryside of Kochi. The twin
brothers are attending the third grade of the village school where they are infamous as
troublemakers. Their youthful exuberance occasionally leads them to destroy things -- at one point
they tear the leaves off a neighbor's potato plants. Following such pranks their mother, a teacher,
must make the rounds through the village apologizing for her boys' behavior. In spite of their
closeness, or perhaps because of it, the twins occasionally have sudden fierce arguments. They are
unshakably agreed, however, about one thing: they both have encountered strange supernatural
appearances. For instance, there are three eerie old women who protect them and who seemed to
come from another world...

The seasons pass without any great changes to the usually quiet and ordered village life. It is only
when the twins go too far with one of their thoughtless pranks and deeply hurt friends poorer than
themselves that they began to create worlds of their own.

Director's Statement: Yoichi Higashi
As you can see, the film is set in 1948, in certain rural province of Japan, three years after its defeat
from the war. The main characters are a pair of adorable twin brothers who love to draw, and their
family.

Production of this took place last year, in the summer of 1995. We were acutely aware that the year
came exactly fifty years after the Japanese lost the war. But more striking for us was that five
months before we began production, that hideous poison gas attack took place in the Tokyo
subway. It was neither by chance nor an unrelated coincidence that the film was finished in the
same year that indiscriminate and pointless mass murder plot was carried out. As director of this
film, I'd rather share a few words with you about this issue, instead of feeding you with tiresome
production notes.

In November 1994, the famous German weekly Die Zeit hosted a symposium titled "what does
`liberal' mean today? ("Was heisster heute liberal?")." Reading the report in its Japanese
translation, I noticed something other than the obvious argument. It seemed to me that even German
intellectuals were not able to clearly envision contemporary Japan as belonging to any particular
cultural sphere of the world.

No doubt the major posing interests for German intellectuals are Germany and Europe, while
America stands a small distance away. regard for Asia as a foreign culture comes next in line. Yet
the Asia talked about here were countries like India and China and the South East Asian nations,
while Japan, at least in image, was not included. I received the strong impression that whenever
Japan was mentioned, it was not a part of Asia, nor of course Europe, but simply as Japan alone.
And this in fact, correlates to my own personal conviction as a Japanese.

Unlike half a century ago, Japan has established itself today as a unique yet isolated existence
among the world cultural spheres. Japan surprised the world with its rapid growth just within fifty
years since the war. But one day we looked up and saw how Japan has transformed into a strange
and solitary industrialized nation. I coined the phenomenon: the making of a "digital nation,"
detached from the analog continuation of the world around it. there is a great symbolic meaning to
the fact that the first indiscriminate and pointless poison gas attack in the world took place in Japan,
a country that lead the world in becoming a digital nation. I will simply mention here, quoting Jean
Baudrillard, that an age has arrive in which a "faceless system" bears "faceless terror."

Pre-production plans for this film began long before that despicable crime, as we intended this film
to be a reevaluation of the Japanese people on the anniversary of the war's end. There were no
changes made in the script or story since. Nevertheless, completed in the wake of the attack, the film
seems to now embody a new deeper contemporary meaning.

In the film, we see a Japanese family during an era of struggling recovery from total devastation by
a war half a century ago. In other words, it portrays a Japanese people long before the emergence of
that "faceless terror." What kind of lives were they leading? What kind of relationships were they
sharing? How were they relating to nature and their environment? And from there on, how did the
Japanese "progress" to produce this "faceless system"? Several small episodes in the narrative
offer us the occasion to examine these points.

Moreover, we can see from this perspective that the protagonists were not conceives as twins just to
be true to their real-life models, but for another deeper reason. A slightly different view will show us
that while people can exist only as lone individuals, each can form dynamic relationships with
others through the strong pulls of "affinity and opposition"; we might say that twins were
intentionally chosen in order to represent and depict such a relationship.

Looking at a film from such an angle may shed light on another way to overcome that "faceless
terror" and gain insight on how to courageously continue to live the next half century.

We made this film, not to turn back to the past with nostalgia, but to critically inspect the present
from a recollective standpoint. Needless to say, the film is intended as good entertainment; but at the
same time I hope that recognizing the filmmaker's hidden intent may enhance and deepen your
enjoyment in watching this film. (Tokyo, February 1996)

The Director: Yoichi Higashi
Yoichi Higashi was born in 1934 in Wakayama Prefecture. He graduated from Department of
Literature, Waseda University and entered Iwanami Movie Production Company in 1954. Higashi
left the company in 1962 to become a freelance filmmaker. His directional debut was in 1965 with a
short film, A Face. He established Higashi Productions in 1969 with Ryutaro Takagi and produced
the feature length documentary Okinawa Islands ("Okinawa Retto"), achieving enormous acclaim.
In 1971 Higashi received the Newcomers Award from the Directors Guild of Japan with his first
feature film The Gentle Japanese ("Yasashii Nipponjin"). His 1978 production A boy Called
Third Base ("Third") was selected Best Film and Best Director by Kinema Junpo, and received
the Newcomers Award of the Minister of Culture Awards for the Arts. His 1992 The River With
No Bridge ("Hashi No Nai Kawa") received much acclaim and was given the 47th Mainichi Film
Award for Best Director, the 16th Japanese Academy Award for Outstanding Director, the 17th
Hochi Film Award for Best Director, and the 5th Nikkan Sports Film Grand Prix for Best Director.

Filmography
1969 Okinawa Islands                    "Okinawa Retto"/Higashi Productions
1971 The Gentle Japanese                "Yasashii Nipponjin"/Higashi Productions
1973 Spiritual Awakening                "Nihon Yokaiden Satori"/Higashi Productions
1978 A Boy Called Third Base            "Third"/Gentosha and ATG
1979 No More Easy Going                 "Mo Hozue Wa tsukanai"/Anguru and ATG
1980 Natsuko                            "Shiki Natsuko"/Toei
1981   Love Letter                    "Love Letter"/Nikkatsu
1981   Manon                          "Manon"/Gentosha
1982   The Rape                       "The Rape"/Toei
1982   Jealousy Game                         "Jealousy Game"/Nikkatsu
1983   Second Love                    "Second Love"/Toei
1985   Bayside Road                   "Wangan Doro"/Tohokushinsha
1986   Incarnation                    "Keshin"/Toei
1988   Oh My Dear!                    "Ureshi Hazukashi Monogatari"/Nikkatsu
1992   The Village With No Bridge     "Hashi No Nai Kawa"/Galeria and Seiyu
1995   Village of Dreams              "Eno Nakano Bokuno Mura"/Siglo

Mieko Harada (as Mizue Tashima)
Mieko Harada was born in Tokyo. She began her movie career in 1974 with Romance in Verdure
("Koiwas Midorino Naka"). Her appearances in 1976 films Lullaby of the Earth ("Daichino
Komoriuta") and Youth to Kill drew praise, giving her nine major film awards including Kinema
Jumpo's choice for Best Lead Actress, Blue Ribbon's Newcomers Award, Hochi Film Award, and
Golden Arrow Newcomers Award. Harada received Outstanding Supporting Actress Award by the
Japan Film Academy in 1980 for her performance in Battle Without Honor Continues ("Sonogono
Jinginaki Tatakai"). She branched out into diverse creative work, first as producer of movie Mr.
Mrs. Lonely in 1980, and as novelist in 1984 through publications from Shueisha. In 1985 she
appeared in Akira Kurosawa's production of Ran. Her 1986 supporting role in House on Fire
won Best Supporting Actress Awards from the Japan Film Academy as well as Hochi Shimbun.
Movies Fishing Diary 2 ("Tsuribaka Nisshi 2"), Kumei's Mt. Aso's Passion, and Kurosawa's
Dreams in 1991 presented her with a second award for Outstanding Supporting Actress from the
Film Academy.

Milestone Film & Video
Milestone was started in 1990 by Amy Heller and Dennis Doros to bring out the best films of
yesterday and today. The company's premieres have included Bae Yong-kyun's Why Has Bodhi-
Dharma Left for the East?, Luc Besson's Atlantis, the documentaries of Philip Haas, and Hirokazu
Kore-eda's Maborosi. Along with Village of Dreams, Milestone is also releasing the Venice
Golden Lion winner, Takeshi Kitano's Fireworks (Hana-Bi).

Milestone's re-releases have included restored versions of Luchino Visconti's Rocco and his
Brothers, F. W. Murnau's Tabu and The Last Laugh, Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B.
Schoedsack's Grass and Chang, Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert, Hiroshi Teshigahara's
Antonio Gaudi and Woman in the Dunes, and Kenji Mizoguchi's Life of Oharu. Milestone is also
known for rediscovering, acquiring, restoring and distributing unknown "classics" that have never
been available in the US. These include Pier Paolo Pasolini's Mamma Roma, Alfred Hitchcock's
"lost" propaganda films, Bon Voyage and Aventure Malgache, Early Russian Cinema (a series of
twenty-eight films from Czarist Russia), Mikhail Kalatozov's astonishing I am Cuba and Jane
Campion's Two Friends. In 1998, Milestone will also release the "lost" films of Kevin Brownlow:
It Happened Here and Winstanley. Milestone received a Special Archival Award from the National
Society of Film Critics for its restoration and release of I am Cuba and four of its restored titles
(Tabu, Grass, Clarence Brown and Maurice Tourneur's The Last of the Mohicans and Winsor
McCay's Gertie the Dinosaur) are listed on the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.
Vice-president Fumiko Takagi, joined the company in 1995.

Press Kit © 1996 Milestone Film & Video

                                  A Milestone Film Release
                   P.O. Box 128 · Harrington Park, New Jersey 07640-0128
            Phone (201) 767-3117 · Fax (201) 767-3035 · Email: milefilms@aol.com
                                   www.milestonefilms.com