A simple story of an ordinary couple’s failing relationship, this intimate no-budget DV feature exposes a complicated tangle of truths of our modern era. The narrative follows lovers and roommates Kitagawa and Shizu from autumn to spring, and from happiness to anger to resignation. Suffering from a panic disorder, Kitawgawa estranges himself from the world and entraps himself in the claustrophobic confines of the apartment. He leaves only to attend his new “seminar.” Initially heartened by his interest in this new venture, Shizu senses something fishy when he shows up with a strange amulet and begins to fill their place with unfamiliar furniture. When he commences rambling about the karmic life, she realizes that the man she cares for has become a complete stranger. TAKAHASHI’s debut feature is a visceral portrait of an era in which panic and anxiety disorders are ubiquitous–an era riddled with medication, self-obsession, and hyper-analysis in which our own banality is a luxury. Eschewing big-budget cinema, Izumi TAKAHASHI has, along with his two collaborators Akie NAMIKI and Hiromasa HIROSUE, utilized the accessibility of DV filmmaking to create a truly independent film with this, his first full-length feature. His filmmography also includes two shorter films, To the point of the Chuo-line (’02) and The gorilla’s song (’02). –EC

	Sponsored by: CULTURAL STUDIES