Issue:
. . . on Monday, Sept. 9 at 6:30 pm for the feature directing debut of actor Joe Odagiri, They Say Nothing Stays the Same. Gathering together collaborators who are equally famous (including cinematographer Christopher Doyle, Academy Award winning costume designer Emi Wada and Armenian jazz musician Tigran Hamasyan, Odagiri portrays a Japan that is at once achingly beautiful, steeped in the past but rushing headlong toward modernization. The film tells the deceptively simple story of a lonely old boatman, Toichi (Akira Emoto, in his first leading role in over a decade), who rescues a half dead young girl from the water and gives her a place to stay. Fu (Ririka Kawashima) is as reticent as her host, but despite the mystery of her past, a friendship begins to grow. Set in early Meiji Japan (perhaps) but timeless in its concerns the sacrifices made in the name of progress, the loss of cherished traditions and the natural environment, the human costs of capitalism Odagiri’s film is astonishing in its storytelling mastery and its visual artistry. The writer director will be on hand for the Q&A session. (Japan, 2019; 137 minutes; in Japanese with English subtitles)
— Karen Severns
