Takashi Uno (Yohta Kawase, RUBBER’S LOVER) wants little more from life than to play the bongo under the starlight. When his uncle passes, his freshly divorced cousin inherits their traditional country home and tasks the shy slacker with caring for it. Together with the town’s underdog grocer, the three revert to a joyful childhood dynamic. Leisurely BBQ (the cheapest beef!) and cup noodles, it’s all fun and games until a family from Tokyo led by an unhinged patriarch (screen veteran Kanji Tsuda, JU-ON: THE GRUDGE) and his enigmatic wife (Natsuki Mieda) manifest their desire to open a countryside café at all costs.

 

Tadashi Nagayama – a protégé of the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival since his 2017 Grand Prix-winning debut JOURNEY OF THE TORTOISE – baffles audience expectations at every turn with this mellow yet thoroughly eccentric pastoral comedy about the right to do nothing, Japan’s growing urban-rural divide, and the country’s ongoing nuclear anxieties.

 

directed by: Tadashi Nagayama

starring: Yohta Kawase, Kanji Tsuda, Natsuki Mieda, Kazua Akieda, Tadahiro Tsuru, Shoichiro Tanigawa

2018 / 96 min / 1.78:1 / Japanese Stereo with English subtitles

 

Additional info:

• Region Free Blu-ray

• OUT FISHING (2021, 19MINS): NEW FEATURETTE INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR TADASHI NAGAYAMA, WRITER YURIKO SUZUKI AND ACTOR YOHTA KAWASE

• MAKING OF BEING NATURAL: PUBLIC TALK AT K’S CINEMA (2019, 19MINS) FEATURETTE WITH DIRECTOR, SFX AND VFX TEAM

• “A STORY OF FLOATING RADIUM” NEW WRITING ON BEING NATURAL BY MATHIEU LI-GOYETTE

• JAPANESE THEATRICAL TRAILER

• Inside sleeve artwork

• English and Japanese SDH subtitles