Sad Vacation

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[edit] Profile

Movie: Sad Vacation
Japanese: サッドヴァケイション
Director: Shinji Aoyama
Writer: Shinji Aoyama
Producer: Naoki Kai
Cinematographer: Masaki Tamura
Release Date: September 8, 2007
Runtime: 136 min
Studio: Stylejam
Distributor: Stylejam
Language: Japanese
Country: Japan

[edit] Intro

The melancholic tone of a song written in memory of punk-rock icon Sid Vicious reverberates off the grainy images of lives stained by distant memories in Shinji Aoyama’s latest feature, Sad Vacation. The film can be viewed as the ideal sequel to the director’s critically acclaimed Eureka, collecting the threads of the tale he spun seven years ago. It can also be looked at as a powerful new saga about blood ties, fate and regeneration.

[edit] Plot

Sad Vacation, starring Tadanobu Asano, Aoi Miyazaki, Joe Odagiri, Ken Mitsuishi and Eri Ishida, is the story of Kenji, a boy who makes his living by doing odd jobs and being a driver for drunken customers of a local bar. Kenji has not yet overcome the pain of being abandoned by his mother when he was very young, and losing his father, who committed suicide. Despite his own bitterness and disappointment he takes great pity on the sister of one of his old friends, who is now in jail, and an illegal immigrant, and decides to take care of them both. But his life changes radically when one night he is driving home Mamiya, the owner of a dispatch company, and realises that the man’s companion is Chiyoko, his mother. Mamiya uses his business as a means of getting ex-prisoners back into society, and helping those who cannot find a dignified job because of their criminal record. He tries to get Kenji involved in his projects and this allows the boy to make a plan in order to confront his mother and and enable them to finally reconcile their past. Although Mamiya and Chiyoko have an adolescent son called Yusuke, when Kenji’s true identity is revealed, Mamiya’s faith in the boy grows even more. Amongst their feelings of begrudge, discomfort and distress, Kenji, Yusuke and Chiyoko will realise that ‘blood’ (family?) ties are stronger, for they dominate their existence. This will lead them to question the power of family relationships, the definition of such a mother, what freedom is.

Ayoama has declared: “Like a football player, who cannot comment on the match that he is taking part in, and which does not yet have a winner, a director cannot explain his film whilst in the process of filming”.