Innocent 15

Innocent 15
  • Thursday, May 25, 12:30 Naxoshalle Kino
  • イノセント15
  • Japan 2016, Blu-ray, 88 min, Japanese with English subtitles
  • Director & script: Hirokazu KAI
  • Production & world sales: TOCA.Tokyo
  • Camera: Jungo MOTOSUGI
  • Cast: Riku HAGIWARA, Sara OGAWA, Shoichi HONDA, Takeshi YAMAMOTO, Keitaro NAKAMURA
  • German premiere
  • Competition Nippon Visions Jury Award and Nippon Visions Audience Award

innocent15.toca.tokyo

Gin has just found out that his father has fallen in love with a man. He meets Narumi, a girl whose abusive mother forces her into prostitution, and the two leave their hometown to search for a better future in Tokyo. Hirokazu KAI’s first feature film deals with difficult subjects but also shows flickers of hope.

Director’s Bio
Hirokazu KAI was born in Kagoshima in 1977 and raised in Tokyo and Santiago de Chile. After graduating from the University of Tsukuba, he founded a theater company that has been under his direction for ten years. After directing several short films since 2006, he completed his first feature length film, INNOCENT 15, in 2016.

  • Supporting film: Jihanki no Hikari ni Furafura Ayumiyori
  • 自販機の光にふらふら歩み寄り ごめんなさいってつぶやいていた
  • by Kyoshi SUGITA, Japan 2017, 37 min, Japanese with English subtitles

Kyoko, a jogging enthusiast working part-time at a gas station. Frustrated as her feelings for co-worker Takayuki are left unsaid, the gas station closes and Takayuki returns to his hometown in the far off island of Hokkaido. Befriended by musician Shotaro, Kyoko’s tale takes a twist as Shotaro expresses his feelings for her.

  • The subtitles of the short film were exclusively translated for this screening by students of the degree course Modern Japan at the Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf in cooperation with the Japan Visualmedia Translation Academy.

Go back