A striking portrait of a small, tight-knit community that the modernisation of post-war Japan passed by, Inland Sea follows the residents of fishing village Ushimado.
There's 86-year-old fisherman Wai-chan who puts off retirement so he can still take his boat on the dreamlike waters that separate Honshu and Shikoku - two of Japan’s main islands. Then there's the elderly Mrs. Koso who drives through the village selling fish to customers' whose preferences she knows inside out.
Tracing the path of the fish, from fishmongers to customers and the stray cats who get the leftovers, director Kazuhiro Soda not only tracks changes to the Japanese fishing industry, but paints a rich, quietly challenging portrait of rural Japanese village life, one that shows how Ushimado's residents refuse to be mere remnants of a traditional way of life.
Also showing as part of our Kazuhiro Soda season - The Big House, Campaign, Mental, Peace
dir. Kazuhiro Soda
year: 2018
country: Japan
run-time: 122 minutes
Doors 18:00
Film 18:30
£6.00 (£4.50 conc.)
“More than enough charm, empathy and unfussy skill on show... a work of simple and unapologetic humanism... (a) winningly intimate study”
“A subtly moving and breathtaking documentary”
“If I were to spotlight just one gem in the rough that was this year’s Berlinale, it would be Japanese director Soda Kazuhiro’s Minatomachi (Inland Sea), a freeform black-and-white documentary portrait of a fishing town, filled with formidable old folks and countless cats”