MWFF 2014: Cape Nostalgia

FUSHIGI NA MISAKI NO MONOGATARI / CAPE NOSTALGIA

2014, Colour, Japan, World Competition 

Production Team

Director: Izuru Narushima

Screenwriter: Masato Kato, Teruo Abe. D'apres le roman/Based on the novel: Niji No Misaki No Kissaten. De/By: Akio Morisawa

Cinematographer: Mutsuo Naganuma

Editor: Hideaki Cohata

Cast: Sayuri Yoshinaga, Hiroshi Abe, Yuko Takeuchi, Tsurube Shofukutei, Takeo Nakahara, Renji Ishibashi, Masakane Yonekura

Music: Goro Yasukawa

Film production and Sales: Prod. & Ventes/Sales: Sayuri Yoshinaga, Izuru Narushima, Riuko Tominaga, Toei Company Ltd., 2-17, 3-Chome, Ginza, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-8108 (Japon), tél.: (+81-3) 3535 76 21, dai_yashiki@toei.co.kp

Director

Born in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan in 1961, Izuru Narushima's debut feature, THE HUNTER, (2004) won him Best New Director honours at the 2005 Japanese Professional Movie Awards and the Yokohama Festival. His subsequent films include FLY, DADDY FLY! (2005), MIDNIGHT EAGLE (2007), LOVE FIGHT (2008), A LONE SCALPEL (2010), ADMIRAL YAMAMOTO (2011), REBIRTH (2011), winner of best director at the Japanese Academy, and A CHAIR ON THE PLAINS (2013). 

Official Synopsis

"Etsuko's café in her peaceful little seaside town is where everyone gathers to gossip and taste her famous brew. But the winds of change are beginning to blow."

The photo below shows members of the film's production team at the Montreal World Film Festival's press conference. In the centre is the lead actress and producer Sayuri Yoshinaga, on the right the lead actor Hiroshi Abe.

This film is an eye candy which warms one's soul and one's emotions. It portrayed life in a small Japanese town located in an-hour-and-a-half ride from Tokyo. This town represents a very different world from the busy capital city. In this sea-shore place, life is peaceful and even magical.

The film is based on the novel The Teahouse of the Rainbow Cape by the Japanese writer Akio Morisawa. The small café we see in the film is actually a real resto place in this real seaside town.

Etsuco (played by Sayuri Yoshinaga) is the owner of the café. All the people in the town and from far away gather at her small wooden house. They find there warmth and understanding. When there, the life burdens seem to melt away from their shoulders.

It is not only the Ensuco's gentle nature that brings people the inner peace, but also her special brew of coffee she offers to her clients. Each morning, she rides a boat across the bay, quite some distance from her house, to fetch water from a sacred spring. She calls this water 'alive' and takes great care it is not disturbed when gathered into containers or during transportation back to her house. From this water she brews her special coffee into which she further infuses the upward rising energy of well-being when reciting a phrase "Goodness arise". Without this short magic ceremony, the coffee does not taste the same to her clients. The heroin has truly found for herself some spiritual truths and strength, the effects of which she is able to pass onto the others, thus somehow organizing their lives to the better.

Ensuco also has a protector, who takes care of her. Koji,
her nephew, played by Hiroshi Abe, is a rough character on the surface. But inside he is a gentle soul. He helps Ensuco in creating the magic of that place and in taking care of her clients and other people in the town.

The scenery in this film is breathtaking. The shots across the bay show the vastness of the sea and the depth of the skies. They are wonderful to watch as these stunning scenes unroll on the screen. 

I highly recommend this film, especially if you feel down or depressed. You will come out feeling much better, even without having tasted a drop of Ensuco's coffee.

You can read about the special event hosted by the Cape Nostalgia Production Team in my following post here.

This film won two prizes at the Montreal World Film Festival 2014. You can read about it here.

Top Image courtesy MWFF 2014 and the Director of the film.
All other photos by Nadia Slejskova.
© Nadia Slejskova