Yoko (658 km)

In the organizer's words:

658km、陽子の旅 Roppyaku gojûhachi kiro, Yôko no tabi

Director: KUMAKIRI Kazuyoshi
2023, 113 minutes, OmeU, DCP

This sensitive road movie starring Kikuchi Rinko tells the story of a woman who sets off for northern Japan and embarks on an emotional journey.

Yôko is 42 and has long since given up on her dreams and her life. She isolates herself from the outside world and works from home for an online customer service company without ever leaving her apartment. When she learns of the death of her father, from whom she has become estranged, her cousin forces her to leave the apartment and travel home with him and his family for the first time in 20 years. Due to a chain of unfortunate circumstances, however, Yôko is left at a rest stop on the highway - without a phone or money. She has no choice but to hitchhike in order to get to her father's funeral on time.

Film series
Films about being on the road - moving Japanese stories

As part of the theme month TABI - On the Road, we are showing films that tell moving stories of people who embark not only on an external but also an internal journey and are faced with unexpected challenges, either voluntarily or by force.

It begins with a science fiction story about a young girl who, after an incident in the school laboratory, gains the ability to travel through time and predict things(Toki o kakeru shôjo). This is followed by an episode of a long-running cult series about the likeable anti-hero Tora-san, who experiences the joys and sorrows of love first-hand on one of his journeys to the various regions of Japan(Otoko wa tsurai yo, Shibamata yori ai o komete).

However, leaving for a distant place can also mean a painful farewell, the wounds of which you carry with you for a lifetime, as a drama set in Okinawa vividly shows(Nabii no koi). The third part of the Kita-Kyûshû trilogy by Aoyama Shinji is dedicated to society's stranded and their long-suppressed emotions(Saddo vakeishon). The series is rounded off by a road movie about a middle-aged woman who has lived isolated from society for many years and is forced to embark on an upsetting journey following the death of her father(Roppyaku gojûhachi kiro, Yôko no tabi).

Price information:

Admission free