Sad Vacation

In the organizer's words:

サッドヴァケイション Saddo vakeishon

Director: AOYAMA Shinji
2007, 136 minutes, original language, 16 mm

Sad Vacation is the third part of director Aoyama Shinji's Kita-Kyûshû trilogy, following Helpless (1996) and Eureka (2000).

Kenji helps to smuggle illegal migrant workers from China to Kitakyûshû. When one of them does not survive the crossing, he takes care of his son because he had suffered a similar fate as a child: his mother had left the family when he was five and his father had committed suicide shortly afterwards.

The good-natured Mamiya is married to Chiyoko, owns a haulage company and has a big heart for those stranded in society. When Kenji gets into trouble with Chinese gangsters, he has to flee. He makes a living as a driver and his path leads him by chance to Mamiya, where he recognizes his own mother in Chiyoko. For years she was the target of his resentment and hatred.

Film series
Films about being on the road - moving Japanese stories

As part of the theme month TABI - On the Road, we are showing films that tell moving stories of people who embark not only on an external but also an internal journey and are faced with unexpected challenges, whether voluntarily or by force.

It begins with a science fiction story about a young girl who, after an incident in the school laboratory, gains the ability to travel through time and predict things(Toki o kakeru shôjo). This is followed by an episode of a long-running cult series about the likeable anti-hero Tora-san, who experiences the joys and sorrows of love first-hand on one of his journeys to the various regions of Japan(Otoko wa tsurai yo, Shibamata yori ai o komete).

However, leaving for a distant place can also mean a painful farewell, the wounds of which you carry with you for a lifetime, as a drama set in Okinawa vividly shows(Nabii no koi). The third part of the Kita-Kyûshû trilogy by Aoyama Shinji is dedicated to society's stranded and their long-suppressed emotions(Saddo vakeishon). The series is rounded off by a road movie about a middle-aged woman who has lived isolated from society for many years and is forced to embark on an upsetting journey following the death of her father(Roppyaku gojûhachi kiro, Yôko no tabi).

This content has been machine translated.

Price information:

Admission free