In the organizer's words:

椿姫 Tsubakihime
Director: ASAMA Yoshitaka
1988, 98 minutes, original language, 16 mm

The love story between an opera-loving cab driver and a geisha was inspired by Giuseppe Verdi's opera "La traviata", which is based on the novel "The Lady of the Camellias" by Alexandre Dumas the Younger. The plot is set in the city of Kushiro in Hokkaido, which is the subject of numerous Japanese pop songs, and in Sapporo.

Kakujirô is divorced, has two children and works as a cab driver. One day, he gets into a conversation with an opera singer and her student on a trip and tells them how he had lost his heart to the geisha Koyuki a few years earlier. He met the beautiful young woman at an end-of-year party and when she sang a famous song from "La traviata", he was hooked and from then on, he was determined to win her over.

Movie series
The film location Hokkaido
Unique stories in unique places

Hokkaido, the northernmost prefecture in Japan, is primarily known for its impressive landscape with mountain ranges, rivers, lakes and unique flora and fauna. In 2005, the Shiretoko peninsula on the north-eastern tip of Hokkaido was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List for its spectacular landscape. In addition, festivals such as the famous Sapporo Snow Festival with its international snow sculpture competition attract millions of visitors every year.

Hokkaido, with its distinctive landscape, is also a popular filming location for both the Japanese market and foreign productions. Last but not least, Hokkaido is home to the Ainu people, to whom the Japanese Cultural Institute is dedicating several events in February. To mark these events, we are turning our attention northwards and presenting three films that were made in Hokkaido.

The focus is on strong personalities in special relationships: Tsubakihime tells the story of a cab driver in Sapporo who is madly in love with a singer. Gakkô II describes how the relationship between a teacher and his students develops over the years, and in Ainu Puri, the director accompanies people on Hokkaido who preserve the traditional Ainu culture.