Just Another Day in Oita

Kono and Takase are in Oita to deliver drugs. When they stay over at Kono's mother's place they meet Kono's distant relative Yoshie, who is also visiting. When Kono has left alone, Takase and Yoshie find eachother.
The second part of Satoki Kemmochi's description of todays Japan is about homecomming, the difficulty in meeting the world that you thought you had left behind. In a slightly faster pace than in the sisterfilm, ”Just Another Day in Oita” tells us about the three main characters doings during a few days visiting the smalltown.
The film should preferably be seen as a continuation of ”Just Another Day in Tokyo”, although it, according to the director, does not matter which one you see first. Takese continues to attemt to get closer to the opposite sex; it is more difficult for Kono, his earlier drugproblem has gotten worse after he came home and realised that the world he grew up in has disappeared. Insecure of his identity and and his sexuality he withdraws to a lonely hotelroom.
This film as well bring us to the gloomy bars and gambling-dens that are the central locations in Kono's life as a runboy for the maffia. It is far from the glamour and fast money he is dreaming about. As if attemting to emphasize the coldness of society both films are set in bitter cold. The characters spend a lot of their time freezing and putting on warm clothes and sitting as close to an element as possible.
Generally it is not a positive picture of Japan. No luxury, no expensive technology and the complete absence of success throughout both films is what characterize these two any-day-at-all-films. Not even the character that most successfully found her place, Nanae in the Tokyo film, is in a particulary enviable situation. The rest of the characters are drifting around in a society that does not care for its socially and economially weak.
The two musketers, Takase and Kono, do not find success at the alternative road that they have chosen. The road of crime is just as hard as the thin road, but more dangerous.
Satori Kemmochi has written, produced and directed the two ”Just Another Day” films. With a budget scrapped together by himself, on 16 mm-film and without any major mishaps, he has created a peculiarly quiet observation of two juveniles development and the tristess they meet in every-day life.
Jakob Abrahamsson

Premiärstatus
Europeisk premiär: Orig. titel
Itsumo no...: Medverkande
Tomonori Kono, Arata Takase, Yoshie Ogita: Producent
Satoki Kemmochi: Manus
Satoki Kemmochi: Foto
Hiroki Miyano: Musik
BEGIN, Rinken Band: Talat språk
Japanese