Locked out

Playing with audience expectations at every turn Yasunobu Takahash feature film debut "Locked Out" is is both socially and experimentally-inclined.

Hiroshi is on the road trying to escape his violent past, a past that is only revealed through short and sporadic flashbacks. On the radio they talk of nothing but tragedy, death and kidnappings, even the songs are about fading away from life. Without a map and with no predestined direction to go to he gets lost in the countryside. Equally lost is six-year-old Keita who has gotten separated from his mother during a shopping-round. The meeting between these two triggers a conflict between conscience and a dark violent nature.

Yasunobu takes us on a violent and impulsive visionary trip, teasing the audience with clues and implications, playing with the conventions of the thriller genre. The camera lingers on gas stations, worn down cafés and empty locales, the emptiness of the pictures calling to mind the work of the late Yasujiro Ozu.
DANNY ROEG

Orig. title
Rokku Auto: Cast
Kiichi Sonobe, Miho Ogata, Takeru Shimada, Tomomi Miyashita, Keisaku Kimura: Producer
Yasunobu Takahashi: Script
Yasunobu Takahashi: Cinematography
Tetsuya Takahashi: Music
Katsuhito Teshirogi: Spoken language
Japanese: Subtitle
English