I Love Thee for Good
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2009, 59 min
Japanese with English subtitles  

“While the wedding day should be blissful for the bride, Eiko, there is a secret that she can’t tell her fiancé…” – Taipei Film Festival

Touching the Skin of Eeriness
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2013, 54 min
Japanese with English subtitles  

“A haunting study of loneliness gradually gives way to a dark mystery in Hamaguchi’s unusual and beautifully acted Touching the Skin of Eeriness. After his father’s death, the reclusive Chihiro goes to live with his older half-brother brother and channels his unspoken feelings into his one passion, modern dancing. Chihiro’s relationship with his dance partner grows increasingly strange, mirroring the dances invented by their intense teacher, played by renowned dancer and choreographer Osamu Jareo.” – Harvard Film Archive

Heaven Is Still Far Away
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, 2016, 38 min
Japanese with English subtitles  

“Yuzo shares his apartment with high schooler Mitsuki, with whom he hangs out between doing work as a censorship mosaic engineer for pornography. However, there’s more to the duo’s seemingly odd partnership than is immediately apparent, and when a film student reaches out to Yuzo and proposes to interview him for a documentary about her dead sister, Yuzo is prompted to reveal Mitsuki’s secret. Originally made as a reward for contributors to the crowdfunding campaign of Hamaguchi’s 2016 film Happy Hour, this tender ghost story displays the director’s penchant for investigating hidden emotions and blurring the lines between past and present.” – Japan Society

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Screening as part of our Ryûsuke Hamaguchi retrospective and as part of Japan 2021: Over 100 years of Japanese Cinema, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. bfijapan.co.uk