Film ‘Always: Sunset on Third Street’ screened

Islamabad

Film ‘Always: Sunset on Third Street’ (Always: Sanchome no Yuhi) from Japan was screened at Lok Virsa Film Club Mandwa on Saturday. The film was produced in 2005 and was a major box office hit.

Film history in Japan goes back to one hundred years. It is one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world. Film production began here in 1897. The fifties was the golden age. Titles like ‘Rashomon’, ‘Seven Sumarai’ and ‘Tokyo Story’ made world film history. These and other films have been on top of the list of international film critics. Filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa, Ozu and Kenji have influenced many film makers worldwide. ‘Rashomon’ and ‘Seven Sumarai’ have been remade in Hollywood as ‘Outrage’ and ‘Magnificent Seven’. Japanese cinema is work of art with modest setting and small world realism carrying strong characters. Today animation has become popular and it accounts for more than 60% of film production. These films are extremely popular both in Japan and overseas markets.

‘Always: Sunset on Third Street’ is 2005 film about family and community. It was selected as Best Film by the Japanese Film Academy and won twelve awards including Best Film, Direction and Screenplay. The film takes us back to late-fifties in Tokyo. The World War II is over and Japanese people are coming back in shape. A new TV Tower is rising above the Tokyo skyline. Suzuki runs a rundown auto garage shop, living with his wife and son. He has a bad temper which is often controlled by the family. Across the street, Chagwa runs his shop from his house. He is a struggling writer selling sweets and storybooks (his serious novels end up receiving rejection slips).

Leaving her home in the village, Mutsuko is dreaming of working with a multi-million auto company in Tokyo. And she ends up in this rundown auto repair shop. Mutsuko and Suzuki's son Ippei become good friends and he begins treating her as his elder sister. Suzuki's rundown garage is just below the upcoming majestic Tokyo Tower. This is then a film about people who are emerging fast from the dark shadows and misery of War.

The audience have described ‘Always: Sunset on Third Street’ as funny, serious, sweet and full of suspense. Tokyo from 1958 has been re-created with remarkable cinematic imagination and computer ingenuity. The technical brilliance comes along with feel-good drama about community, optimism, family in a hard-hit postwar Tokyo neighborhood.

Director Takashi Yamazaki has exceptionally polished experience in visual effects and animation. He has made several science fiction hits. Here he is not making science fiction but human drama. True, computer generated effects have been used in re-creating world of late-fifties in Tokyo. According to Takashi, after making several science fictions, he made ‘Always’. The powers of actors and characters were now more important to him but his love for special effects can still be seen.

‘Always’ should not be taken just as a nostalgic trip (down-memory-lane from 1958). This film shows a time when there was a lot of energy and positive thinking. This film is not about the past but the future.

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