Ishi ga aru
There Is a Stone
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Tshuchi Kanou
Ishi ga aru | There Is a Stone by Tatsunari Ota
JPN 2022, Forum
© Tatsunari Ota
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Ishi ga aru | There Is a Stone by Tatsunari Ota
JPN 2022, Forum
© Tatsunari Ota
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An Ogawa
Ishi ga aru | There Is a Stone by Tatsunari Ota
JPN 2022, Forum
© Tatsunari Ota
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Ishi ga aru | There Is a Stone by Tatsunari Ota
JPN 2022, Forum
The film opens with a nameless woman arriving in a small town, out of seeming nowhere. “Is there anything nice around here?” she asks a local, “Something fascinating?” Her inquiry met with a near-blank stare, she thus drifts, eventually encountering a man skipping stones by the river. Together they pass the afternoon engaged in playful outdoor activities like balancing sticks, stacking stones and more. Finally, they part – their time together curtailed by the inevitable waning daylight – with the unexpected emotional import of their time together left rippling like the water over one of their submerged pebbles.
While structured around central characters and narrative in nature, the film invites a form of spectatorship more closely associated with dance or performance art. Throughout, Ota emphasises the physical and emotional exchanges between strangers, as well as between humans and nature. As if in response to the woman’s early query, Ishi ga aru quietly reorients our expectations and understanding of fascination.
With
- An Ogawa
- Tsuchi Kanou
Crew
Director | Tatsunari Ota |
Screenplay | Tatsunari Ota |
Cinematography | Yuji Fukaya |
Editing | Keiko Okawa |
Music | Shu Oh |
Sound Design | Young Chang Hwang |
Sound | Naru Sakamoto |
Assistant Director | Yui Kiyohara |
Production Manager | Koji Toyama |
Producers | Tatsunari Ota, Sachihiko Tanaka, Kotaro Kimura |
Produced by
Tatsunari Ota
Sachihiko Tanaka
Kotaro Kimura
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An Ogawa, Tsuchi Kanou, Tatsunari Ota
There was a lot to talk about: the two main actors and the director at the Q&A.
Ishi ga aru · Forum · Feb 19, 2023
Tatsunari Ota
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Born in Fukushima, Japan in 1989, he studied film. His graduation film Bundesliga was shown at the Pia Film Festival in 2017. His second film Ishi ga aru premiered at Tokyo FILMeX.
Filmography
2016 Bundesliga; 65 min. 2022 Ishi ga aru (There Is a Stone); 104 min.
Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2023