Program 47: Left Handed (Trailer)

LEFT HANDED (TOBIRA NO MUKO) - Program 47 - Tuesday, May 5, 2009 - 9:45 PM - Laemmle's Sunset 5 -

Hiroshi, a disaffected teenage boy struggling at school, one day shuts himself away in his bedroom. For the next two years he refuses to come out or let anyone else in. Hiroshi's parents are so ashamed by what has happened that they attempt to conceal his condition from friends and family. LEFT HANDED is based on the uniquely Japanese condition of hikikomori (social withdrawal), which is estimated to affect 1 million young Japanese. Once Hiroshi disappears inside his room, the film focuses on the family, principally Hiroshi's mother Yoshiko, who gradually comes to terms with what her son has done, all the while maintaining a pretense of normality in front of neighbors and friends. The father, always away at work, leaves Yoshiko and Hiroshi to share a symbiotic, co-dependent relationship that is very common amongst Japanese sons and their mothers. Indeed, it feels as if Yoshiko could care for Hiroshi in this way for the rest of his life. In the larger scheme of things, Hiroshi's socially withdrawn existence could be seen as a harbinger of a new way of life, one forged by the vast changes Japan has undergone in recent years.

(Japan, 2008) Dir./Scr.: Laurence Thrush
Video, 109 min., Color, Narrative, Japanese w/ ES

Purchase tickets at http://www.vconline.org/festival

Program Support provided by Japan Foundation / Los Angeles

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• left
• handed
• tobira
• no
• muko
• los
• angeles
• asian
• pacific
• film
• festival
• laurence
• thrush
• japan
• visual
• communications

[LeeSeoJeong]

I saw this movie this afternoon in France !

It was a very good movie and all people in the cinema love it ! Thanks!