LOVE BOMBS is the new captivating film by director Nobuteru Uchida.His Love Addiction won the Grand Prize at the 2011 TOKYO FILMeX and his next movie, Odayaka, was selected in this year’s competition of the same event. Love Bombs is his latest film that depicts the “ordinary lifestyle” after the “life filled with suspicion about the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident” depicted in Odayaka.
INTRODUCTION
We live in an intolerant, unequal, unstable world that’s full of danger.
Nothing ever goes right. Never been in love. Never feel a sense of accomplishment.
Be greedy. Be reckless. Never mind if your feet aren’t touching the ground. Take off toward the horizon.
A man and a man and a man and a man…And a woman. A strange, outrageous battle of love.
A village in the countryside. Kiyomi, a woman from the city, is taken in by an old woman. Kiyomi, the old woman, and Masaru, a young man who is like a grandson to her, share a quiet dinner table every evening. The men of the village are bewitched by Kiyomi, who refuses to talk about her past and sometimes gets a wistful look on her face. Shinji, an aspiring writer, presents her with a book he wrote. Tatsuya, a farmer, gives her ripe tomatoes to eat. Kiyomi is flustered but doesn’t feel bad about their attention. Only Masaru continues to silently prepare their meals. Then one day, the old woman collapses, and a man comes to the village looking for Kiyomi…!
The latest by Director Nobuteru Uchida of "LOVE ADDICTION" and "Odayaka".
Nobuteru Uchida, who entered the limelight after winning the 11th TOKYO FILMeX Grand Prize with Love Addiction, an independent film made with a budget of a mere 1.1 million yen, makes a commercial-film debut with Love Bombs, his latest film that follows the much talked-about Odayaka.
The heroine, Kiyomi, is played by Mami Yamasaki (Box!, Seaside Motel). The taciturn Masaru is played by Kazuki Namioka (Harakiri : death of a samurai, Tantei wa Bar ni Iru). Tatsuya and Shinji, two men who fall head over heels for Kiyomi, are played by Kiyohiko Shibukawa (Nine Souls) and Mondo Yamagishi (from theater group Shika564 in his first movie role). The old woman, Kinu, is played by Kohko Mori (Wandering Home), a 60-year veteran in the entertainment industry. The cast also includes Yohji Tanaka and Kanji Tsuda, individualistic actors that are indispensable to the Japanese film industry. The music score is produced by Minami Nozaki of Three Year Delivery .
Ripe tomatoes under the sun, water droplets gliding across the ceiling, leaves rustling in the wind.
This film is part of a project that strives to deliver high-quality entertainment through collaborations by independent filmmakers and professionals of the field. People who grovel shamelessly in the idyllic, charming countryside with its soothing landscapes of light and shadows… There, people are ludicrous and endearing and in their true nature.
CAST
Mami Yamasaki, Kazuki Namioka, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Mondo Yamagishi, Kohko Mori,Yohji Tanaka, Kanji Tsuda
STAFF
Director: Nobuteru Uchida, Screenplay: Nobuteru Uchida, Teruo Noguchi
Photography: Tohru Hirao,
Lighting: Hisaaki Saito, Takuya Kaneko, Recording: Kohkichi Komoda, Shoko Tsuji
Makeup: Hiromi Igarashi, Editing: Yoshifumi Fukazawa, Music: Minami Nozaki,
Producer: Toshinori Nishimae, Executive Producer: Takamasa Takeuchi, Tomohiro Kobayashi,
Production company: Amuse Soft and Nippon Shuppan Hanbai Distribution in Japan: Makotoya
SPEC
2012 / Japan / color / 16:9 / stereo / HDCAM / BD format / 94 min
©2012 “Samayou Kemono”Film Partners / www.makotoyacoltd.jp/lovebombs/
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Unlike other animals, humans worry and feel troubled throughout life. What do I want to do? How should I live my life? There is probably a considerable number of people who lose sleep mulling over such questions and agonizing about their lives. Actually, only humans ponder such questions whereas other animals act on instinct, eat when they’re hungry, mate when in season to produce offspring, and die when their time comes. In contrast, humans get bored by this kind of animal-like lifestyle. We are discontented with the repetition of the same things and of not having anything new in our lives.
That’s why people fall in love as a quick and easy way out of these doldrums. When there is no one to fall in love with, we find someone at all costs.
Thinking that anything is better than a plain old lifestyle, both the ones falling in love and the ones being fallen for participate zealously in the romance game, and soon they are consumed by desire, hope for something much, much better, and seek excitement not just in love but also in other aspects of their lives.
Then on March 11, 2011, we were hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake.We in Japan experienced the earthquake, the tsunami, and the nuclear power plant accident, and suddenly found ourselves amidst a disaster of a scale rarely seen around the world. We suffered an overwhelming devastation and an outrageous accident, and they sapped us of our strength and wore us out with fatigue each day.
It was at a time like this that I realized the importance of ordinary days that have nothing new about them. The importance of eating meals and falling asleep comfortably.
I didn’t want any more excitement. I wanted, from the bottom of my heart, to be free of worry, to live life like I knew it even if it were mundane.
In many movies, the repetitive lifestyle has been depicted as the “epitome of boredom.” However, after experiencing the series of disasters, we …no… I realized the importance of the mundane that is repeated one day after another.
An ordinary breakfast, an ordinary lunch, and dinner at a table shared with other people.
The scenes in the countryside of Love Bombs are the repetition of such daily events. And Love Bombs, like my independent film Love Addiction, is about a woman who is addicted to love, but unlike the main character of Love Addiction, the one in Love Bombs tries desperately to break her habit.
When you feel tired living in this world without order, I hope you will watch Love Bombs and that it will provide you with a little comfort.
DIRECTOR : Nobuter Uchida
Born in Saitama-Prefecture in 1972. Uchida first studied oil-painting with the intention of pursuing a career in painting, but he started to become passionate about film during his high school years, and switched his paintbrush to a camera to begin expressing his unique world-view on the big screen.
FILMOGRAPHY – a documentary about a man who writes illustrated letters (PFF Award 2008 Special Jury Prize) – a tragedy about a selfish man’s pure love (8th TAMA NEW WAVE Grand Prize) – a story about four men and women baring their souls and at the mercy of their nature (11th TOKYO FILMeX 2010 Grand Prize) – based on thoughts that stuck with Uchida about the Great East Japan Earthquake from right after its occurrence 2012
WORLD SALES COMPANY: Makotoya Co.,Ltd. info@makotoyacoltd.jp