Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme: The Cowards Who Looked To The Sky

ふがいない僕は空を見た (Fugainai boku wa sora wo mita)

Director Yuki Tanada joins us for an introduction and Q&A at both screenings.

Faced with the growing pressure of bearing a child for her immature husband, lonely housewife Satomi (Tomoko Tabata) regularly retreats to the cosplay fantasy world of her favourite animated character ‘Anzu’. After a random encounter at an anime convention with high-school student and fellow cosplayer Takumi (Kento Nagayama), Satomi begins a full illicit affair with the young man, regularly meeting and making love at her marital home. Meanwhile, Takumi’s best friend Ryota struggles living with his senile grandmother in a rundown housing development after his mother abandoned the two of them for a new boyfriend.

Yuki Tanada, considered one of Japan’s most talented filmmakers, returns from a four year break with this emotionally-engaging and bold expression of the inner lives, hardships and cooped-up feelings of individuals in modern day Japan.

The Cowards Who Looked To The Sky, dir. Yuki Tanada, Japan, 2012, 140 min, Japanese with English subtitles

Special ticket offer: four tickets for the price of three!