Confronting Generational Trauma through Fading Memories
Sneak Preview Screening: "A Pale View of Hills" (Tooi Yamanami no Hikari)
followed by a Q&A with writer-director Kei Ishikawa
Wednesday, August 20 at 6:00 pm
In Japanese, English with English subtitles
Japan/UK/Poland 2025 123 minutes
Written, directed and edited by: Kei Ishikawa
Based on the novel by: Kazuo Ishiguro
Produced by: Hiroyuki Ishiguro, Miyuki Fukuma, Stephen Woolley,
Elizabeth Karlsen, Mariusz Włodarski, Marta Gmosińska
Executive produced by: Tenshin Tsutsumi, Kazuo Ishiguro, Toshi Honda,
Tom Yoda, Takashi Shinomiya, Hiroshi Hayakawa, Akio Nomura,
Kazufumi Yoshimura, Naomi Despres, Michéle Marshall
Starring: Suzu Hirose, Fumi Nikaido, Yoh Yoshida, Camilla Aiko,
Kouhei Matsushita, Tomokazu Miura
Film courtesy of Gaga Corporation
Adapting Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro's haunting 1982 debut novel "A Pale View of Hills," Kei Ishikawa ("Gukoroku: Traces of Sin," "A Man") creates a visually lush, richly textured, emotionally precise meditation on war, loss and memory. At once a mystery, a family drama and a delicate psychological portrait, the film captures the ways in which trauma is inherited-across decades, oceans and self-imposed silence.
Straddling two timelines-post-war Nagasaki in the 1950s and England in the early 1980s-the story unfolds as Etsuko (Yoshida), a Japanese woman living in the British countryside, and her aspiring-author daughter, Niki (Aiko), pack up their home in preparation for a move. Finding early photos of her mother, Niki prods her about the past. Gradually, Etsuko begins to recall the optimistic mood in Nagasaki as it was recovering from the bombing. As a young wife, Etsuko (now played by Hirose) and her husband Jiro (Matsushita), lead a quiet life, until Etsuko befriends a mysterious single mother named Sachiko (Nikaido) and her troubled daughter. Sachiko dreams of moving to America, and her enthusiasm is seductive.
As she unravels her suppressed memories, Etsuko must grapple with long-hidden truths, both in the past and closer to the present, and Niki gradually begins to discover troubling inconsistencies.
"A Pale View of Hills" marks the first screen adaptation of Ishiguro's work by a Japanese director, and Ishiguro himself served as an executive producer. An international co-production by the UK's Number 9 Films, Poland's Lava Films and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Bunbuku, the film received a heralded world premiere in the 2025 Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard section.
Please join us for this sneak preview of "A Pale View of Hills," ahead of the film's Japan release on September 5.
For more (in Japanese): https://gaga.ne.jp/yamanami/
Writer-director KEI ISHIKAWA studied filmmaking at the National Film School in Łódź, Poland, before beginning a career directing TV documentaries and short films in Japan. His feature debut, "Gukoroku - Traces of Sin," premiered at the 73rd Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section and received widespread acclaim, as well as earning Ishikawa the Shindo Kaneto Award Silver Prize. After releasing "Listen to the Universe" (2019) and "Arc" (2021), a film adaptation of the novel by world-renowned science-fiction author Ken Liu, he directed "A Man" (2023), which also screened in Venice Orizzonti and closed the 2022 Busan Film Festival, went on to win eight major awards at the 46th Japan Academy Film Prizes, including Best Picture.
Please make your reservations at the FCCJ Reception Desk 03 3211-3161 or register online.
All film screenings are private, noncommercial events primarily for FCCJ members and their guests.
- Karen Severns, Film Committee