- Japan
THE REBIRTH
Synopsis
A schoolgirl has killed a classmate. Junichi is the father of the dead girl, Noriko the mother of the perpetrator. A year later, Junichi works at a foundry in a small industrial town in Hokkaidō and lodges at a guesthouse where Noriko works as a cook. They see each other every day, do not speak to one another, do not look at one another. Masahiro Kobayashi’s “The Rebirth” (Japan 2007, original title “Ai no Yokan”, “A Premonition of Love”) observes these two people, struck by the same event from two sides, going about their daily routines – and a rapprochement that is barely visible.
Kobayashi himself plays Junichi. His film is a subdued drama that uses its repetitions – work, eating, silence – as form, keeping emotion almost entirely out of frame. At the Locarno Festival in 2007, “The Rebirth” won four awards, including the Golden Leopard and the Daniel Schmid Prize. It was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2008.
Festival
Shown at the 2008 edition of Around the World in 14 Films.
