Heaven Is Still Far Away / I Love Thee for Good
This program is presented by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Part of the UCLA Film & Television Archive screening series Ryusuke Hamaguchi: Early Works. Learn more at cinema.ucla.edu.
Heaven Is Still Far Away (2016)
Ever a student of film theory, Ryusuke Hamaguchi credits his graduate work with Kiyoshi Kurosawa for challenging him to grapple with the essential contradiction of cinema: using a recording device to create fiction. Understanding this paradox, Hamaguchi has said, “is what directing is all about.” Curiously there’s a touch of Hirokazu Koreeda in this short about a film student making a documentary about people who knew her deceased sister, only to discover one of her subjects, a detached young man, can speak with her ghost. In Hamaguchi’s script and framing, the nature of the afterlife becomes enmeshed with the nature of cinema.
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Screenwriter: Ryusuke Hamaguchi. With: Nao Okabe, An Ogawa, Hyunri.
I Love Thee for Good (2009)
On the morning they’re supposed to get married, Seichi (Hikohiko Sugiyama) has woken up with a hangover from his bachelor party while Eiko (Aoba Kawa) wonders if now is the time to tell him about her affair. Meanwhile, across town, her ex-boyfriend, a nude model, decides he needs to stop the whole thing. As they each make their way to the event, Hamaguchi orchestrates an extended cross-cutting sequence that builds anticipation while building a multifaceted portrait of a generation at the crossroads between holding on to their ideals and surrendering to practicality.
Director/Screenwriter: Ryusuke Hamaguchi. With: Aoba Kawai. Hikohiko Sugiyama, Nao Okabe.
The UCLA Film & Television Archive is a division of UCLA Library, and presents its public programs in the Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer, among other venues. For more information about the Archive, visit cinema.ucla.edu.
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