German + Rain

German + Ame

(Japan, 2007, 71 mins)

DigiBeta (NTSC)

International Premiere

PROD: Hashizume Kazuyuki
SCR: Yokohama Satoko
CAM: Hirano Shingo, Kamakari Yoichi
ED: Okusada Seisho
Cast: Nozaki Yoshimi, Fujioka Suzune, Hisauchi Michio

Dragons & Tigers Award Nominee.

One of the most startling debuts of the year, Yokohama Satoko’s exuberant movie centres on an indomitable female misfit. The 16-year-old Yoshiko (nicknamed “Gorilla Man” by her boss, after a manga character) has lived alone since her parents divorced; her mother is now dead and her father is in hospital. She works as a gardener’s assistant alongside a young German guy, and is determined to make it as a singer-songwriter. There are not many options open to a girl like Yoshiko in a small town like this, so she starts giving recorder lessons to three primary-school boys, one of whom wants to be a girl. She enters a singing contest but sends in her friend’s photo, thinking the judges will be put off by her looks. She discovers that a local pedophile has propositioned two of her pupils and decides to take action: emasculation or extermination! In the event, she settles for hush money and buys everyone treats at the convenience store …

One-time office staffer Yokohama largely funded this herself, using money she won at the CO2 Festival in Osaka with the graduation short she made at Tokyo Film School. Other Japanese movies (even a few by other women directors) have touched on serious issues like broken families, social ostracism and child abuse. But none has this much wild humour, or a heroine to compare with Yoshiko.

-- Tony Rayns

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