Hikikomori (the recluse) - short film (30 minutes)
A dark comedy set in contemporary Japan.
A young japanese man, Akira, decides to isolate himself, to become a hikikomori, a recluse, hiding away from the responsibilities and pressures of his daily life. His solitude soon turns to utter loneliness and to remedy his desolation he engages in discourse with imaginary characters who show up in his mind and in his room. His new so-called-friends soon reveal themselves more of a disruption than a comfort to him.
Cast:
Kimchi Sonobe (Akira)
Yoshinori Horimoto (Tosei)
Rin Sakura (Mika)
Kaori Fujii (Eiko)
Sawa Hori (Atsuko)
Takako Hotta (Teacher)
Azusa Yamaguchi (School Girl)
Saki Shimizu (School Girl)
Minori Kotzumi (Hostess)
Chihiro Kura (Hostess)
Shinzo Toda (High School Boy)
Crew:
Michael Løfquist (Writer/Director)
Toshiharu Yaegashi (Cinematographer)
Yusuke Hatai (Production Manager/AD)
Yusuke Mogi (Sound Engineer)
Tsubonuma Daisuke (AC)
Nao Saito (Hair & Makeup)
Mikiyo Miyata (Camera Technician)
Ryousuke Mitsuoka (Camera Technician)
Kawaharada Yuma (Gaffer)
Sato Takeshi (Grip)
Itaru Kinoshita (Grip)
Sachiko Imai (Script Supervisor)
Hiroko Yamazaki (Script Translation)
Nobuyuki Miyake (Script Adaptation)
Toshiharu Yaegashi (Script Adaptation)
Shell Jiang is a talented photographer, based in San Francisco.
I wrote, directed and filmed this promotional video to show case her talent.
It took us two two days to shoot the piece. I brought along a couple of Leica's (M7, M9-P) and various lenses, a Hasselblad and an old polaroid camera all used as props.
Having fun after the first day of shooting.
Used an old polaroid camera to shoot this image, which is used in the video at the end.
Xinjiang, a remote desolate region of western China, boasts the largest sand desert in the world: The Taklamakan Desert. It is also the home of several muslim Turkic groups, the most predominant, the Uighurs.
Sounded interesting so I went there myself to see.
The images and writeup published as a free iBooks book
Sayonara Pelle
A dark comedy in english set in contemporary Tokyo.
Pelle, a naive Dane, sets himself the impossible task of gaining acceptance in the cloistered society of Japan. Exasperated with the complex dating game, Pelle soon signs up as an cultural companion to the wealthy and sexually frustrated middle-aged women of Tokyo. A job he definitely is not equipped for.
Newly arrived in Tokyo, Pelle, a naive and idealistic dane, sets himself the impossible challenge of finding a way to fit into the closed society of contemporary Japan. Pelle looks for a shortcut in the bushido inspired martial arts, but failing miserably he takes the advice of hisfellow co-worker, Barry, an cynical australian who has seen it all, and attempts to find himself a Japanese girlfriend.
Crossing the pervasive boundary of the polite, superficial Japanese and understanding the difficult etiquette of the dating game is harder than he expects. Pelle, exasperated with the girls of his own age, signs up as an escort to wealthy, bored and sexually frustrated middle aged women of Tokyo. A job he definitely is not suited for.
Juggling the bizarre requirements of his new escort job and attempting to woo miss right, who turns out to be the bosses daughter, is not an easy task.
Red Autumn
A drama in chinese & english
An idealistic scholar tastes forbidden love with the mistress of a Shanghai Official but as the Chinese Cultural Revolution erupts around them, their world is destroyed.
In the late summer of 1966 a hopeful young teacher, Shou-Shan, arrives in Shanghai to teach English. His resolve for a solitary academic life quickly evaporates when he meets the sensual Li-Ying, the mistress of an influential city official. A shared passion for foreign literature and language rapidly develops into an irresistible but clandestine love.
As the Cultural Revolution gathers momentum, Shou-Shan and his fellow teachers are among the first victims of its relentless advance. Mao's Red Guards soon unleash their terror against ordinary citizens and the existing government.
Faced with the maelstrom of destruction, Shou-Shan and Li-Ying struggle to salvage their lives and their love.
Feature length screenplay in English, set in contemporary Japan
Feature length screenplay (English/Chinese) set during the cultural revolution in China in the late 1960'ties.
A collection of smaller film projects from around the world.
Kokoro is my first short filmed in Japan, a smaller project. The others are smaller projects that I have made when time and energy allowed. Nothing spectacular or demanding
11.9.2016
Met a 78 year old white male in Scottsdale, Arizona who did his best to convince me that his world view was the only view worth having. A lot of opinions was passed on to me in this oneway tirade but one did stick to my mind. His former classmate from high-school has a son who had ‘joined’ the radical liberals because he was angry at how blacks were treated in the US. He was of the opinion and had conveyed this opinion to his former classmate’s son that the son should be thankful and happy that Muslim and Jew slave-traders had brought his ancestors to America so he could be born in this “great” country instead of some jungle in Africa. Despite my disbelief and revulsion I couldn’t help be impressed how he managed to turn this atrocity, this act of barbarity and savagery into something positive and in the same breath managed vilify Muslims and Jews. When I did mange to point out that slave owners were white, he looked at me with the expression “what has that got to do with anything”.
Kokoro - my first film project in Japan allowing to get to know my talented director of photography, Toshiharu Yaegashi (aka Toshi) and discover talents in the Tokyo acting scene.
Testing the Red One camera for our first short film I used the test footage to write a little story with Toshi's test images. The young woman played by Kaori Kuriyama and young man is played by talented and award winning Japanese writer & director, Nobuyuki Miyake (aka Bob)
A short film made with zero resources, one actress, one assistant and at one location.
In the height of the Bush-era torture debacle - The Geneva Conventions (Article III) and the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution define the rights of the individual: no person shall be deprived of life or liberty ... without due process of the law.
I spent some months wondering the streets of Tokyo (and occasionally other places) with an old Hasselblad 6x6 and plenty of B&W film.
I spent some months wondering the streets of Tokyo (and occasionally other places) with an old Hasselblad 6x6 and plenty of B&W film.
I spent some months wondering the streets of Tokyo (and occasionally other places) with an old Hasselblad 6x6 and plenty of B&W film.
I spent some months wondering the streets of Tokyo (and occasionally other places) with an old Polaroid camera and plenty of B&W film.
