Jul. 10, 2015

Shooting of the Movie Haha to Kuraseba Underway

Sumitomo Corporation has been participating in the production of Haha to Kuraseba, a new movie to be released on December 12, 2015. Shooting of the movie, which commenced at the end of April, has been progressing smoothly and is now reaching its climax. Here, we provide a look at how things are going.

Director Yoji Yamada (right) at a shooting scene. Sumitomo Corporation has been working with Director Yamada on his many movies since *A Class to Remember* was released in 1993.
©2015 *Haha to Kuraseba* Film Partners

The movie is set in Nagasaki, Kyushu, after World War II. Settings in the studio closely reproduce nostalgic scenes from 1940s Japan. Nobuko Fukuhara, the main role played by actress Sayuri Yoshinaga, lives in a white midwife clinic located halfway up a slope. The story is centered around this clinic overseeing the blue sea below. When Director Yoji Yamada calls out from behind the camera, "August 9, 1948, about 9:30 in the morning. It's really hot and you can hear a loud chorus of cicadas," the atmosphere in the studio gradually changes to that of summertime in Nagasaki. After shooting some test shots, a voice calls out "Now, for real!," and the actors, actresses and entire staff raise their level of focus, eventually conjuring up a scene in the story to be used in the film.

The studio setting of the Fukuhara residence is so true-to-life that it could be lived in right away. A number of electric fans are placed in the studio, which rustle the trees to produce "summer breezes." The trees themselves are also real.

The movie features a cast of much spotlighted actors and actresses, including Kazunari Ninomiya, Haru Kuroki, and Tadanobu Asano, and will be completed after on-location shootings in Nagasaki. In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, the movie aims to convey anew messages about war and peace to viewers. The movie will hopefully turn out to be worthy of this important anniversary.