1996 ‘絵の中のぼくの村’ Directed by Yōichi Higashi
Tells of the childhood of two nine-year-old twins in a rural village in Japan after World War 2. Includes the boys relationships with their schoolteacher mother, civil servant father, elderly landlord, a rough new boy at the school, and three mysterious spirits in the form of old women.
夢幻村莊, Eno nakano bokuno mura, 梦幻村庄, E no naka no boku no mura, Das Dorf meiner Träume, Le Village de mes rêves, Drömmarnas by
Japan
Japan
Based on the autobiography The Village of My Paintings by Tashima Seizo, Higashi Yôichi's subtly affecting Village of Dreams (Eno nakano bokuno mura) is more than what it might appear on the surface: a pleasantly nostalgic trip to idyllic childhood summer days in the country. Although this visually striking story of a pair of young twin brothers growing up in a rustic hamlet in immediate post-war Japan could probably be enjoyed on a superficial level—similar to Hou Hsiao-hsien’s A Summer at Grandpa’s (1984), it unfolds largely through a languid yet vivid series of vignettes—the film manages to touch on a number of deeper concerns faced by the society in transition, including land and educational reforms and the questioning of conformist…
The subtlety and scope of a film that comes from such a mastery in form. Childhood as the passing of all the things that confound us the many breaks the falling down and getting up again trading it all in for the bigger world; boys catching fish and trapping eels. Boys causing mischief during the summer time the psychic energy in the absence of authority, when they return to school life's anxieties focus on its authority figures as the destructive impulses now depend on the approval of others. The freedom of having a dominant motherly figure and the rigid institutions that try and replace it. Spirits of the village dreams of the young.
Childhood has its own way of seeing, thinking, and feeling.
The eyes are full of verdure and cicadas cried continuously, like a summer that never disappears in everyone's memory, accompanied by mischief and all kinds of stubbornness, the free nutrients of childhood nourish the rich soul, but it is hard to find a trace. Looking down on the warmth and coldness of the human world from a fantasy and surreal perspective, the countryside in the early postwar period was not all outside the world, cold-eyed and contemptuous, crowded out and rumors, and never missed any corner of human existence. The boy who was hostile by everyone did not know where he fell.
From the perspective of personal childhood memories, the…
Village of Dreams (1996), Winner of the Silver Bear at the 1996 Berlin Film Festival, directed by Yoichi Higashi is one of the films Keiko McDonald wrote about in her book Reading A Japanese Film that I hadn't seen yet. It is a curious film in that it is based on a memoir by the painter Tashima Seizo and his identical twin brother Yukihiko who is also a painter. The film begins with some documentary footage of the two brothers meeting and talking about their time growing up in Koichi in Shikoku after WWII. Then it goes into flashback to 1948 when the brothers were nine and it chronicles their escapades in rural Japan at school, in nature fishing and…
41/100
Like zzzQuil in celluloid form. This tale of two bratty kids just sort of hanging out in a small Japanese village totally missed the mark for me. Maybe it's because the only available way to watch this movie looks as if it was filmed on a VHS tape that sat out in the sun for 20 years…but oh my was this a struggle to get through. Observational cinema can be cool and all but to work right I need to care about the characters or at least have some other things to fall back on like good visuals/acting and sadly all that is lacking here. This one is sadly a pass.
Except for the beautiful scenery I can't say it was a pleasant watch - both in general and in particular. And of cource two little boys with squeaky voices and sticking penises were on top of all that generalities and particularities.
On the other hand the movie has some practical value. Thanks to it I know now that vagina is a "very important hole".
All in all... khm... I think trying to make something about children is a dangerous path. Everything may be quite "right", whatever it means, but hardly watchable at the same time: the hypocritical nature of such things always puts a spoke in wheel.
As for Higashi himself - you can watch some of his films and easily make sure that he is much better with other topics.
This is one of these films about the day-to-day mundanity of the lives of peasants in rice paddies of which I cannot consider myself much of an enthusiast. Perhaps I do Village of Dreams a disservice. The film received a degree of acclaim when it received an international arthouse release in 1997; personally I found it a long, dull effort.
Village of Dreams is intended as a series of childhood anecdotes – the film is based on the childhood reminiscences of two real-life twin storybook artists Seizo and Yukihiko Tashima who both play themselves during the present-day wraparound segments. However, these anecdotes are lazily constructed and the film without any real dramatic structure. It only drifts through incidents. One or…
Really surprised with this wonderful and unique look at childhood. Great film by Yoichi Higashi. It has a kind of interesting naturalism, everything seems so original, and all this poetry fits so easily to me. I highly recommend it. It is really unfair to have only hundred views here on Letterboxd.
A slice-of-life story in rural Japan shortly after WW2. Some beautiful moments of magic realism.
While definitely having a vision an dabbing aristocracy value it is a movie which ultimately feels devoid of a point with nothing getting a satisfying conclusion.
A conventional bildungsroman redeemed somewhat by the beauty of the Japanese countryside. Tells of the childhood story of two nine-year-old twins in a rural village after the second world war, including their relationships with their schoolteacher mother, a school bully who turns out to be different, and three mysterious spirits in the form of old women. Awkwardly inserted magic realist moments don't help the cause.
