15
1hr 30mins

Baku Kinoshita's critically acclaimed debut feature explores the surprising and heartfelt life story of an elderly yakuza who is dying alone in a solitary prison cell.

Unfortunately no Audio Description track is available for this feature.
Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026
KINOSHITA Baku
15
Animation
Japanese
Contains Foreign Language Subtitles

Akutsu, an elderly inmate serving life in prison, is on the verge of a lonely death in his solitary cell. The voice mocking him belongs to a balsam flower with an uncanny ability to talk.

Through their ‘conversation,’ Akutsu begins to reflect on his past and the summer of 1987…

In a town by the sea, down-and-out yakuza Akutsu moves into a shabby apartment found for him by his sworn “”brother””, Tsutsumi. Out in the yard, a balsam flower grows. Akutsu shares his new home with Nana, a woman six years his junior, and her newborn son Kensuke.

The three of them live happily, until Akutsu suddenly finds himself in need of a huge sum of money. This leads him to join Tsutsumi in an attempt to rob their own organization’s safe of 300 million yen…

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Sat 28 Mar
Sun 29 Mar