Film archive, 2000

Eureka

EUREKA

Director AOYAMA Shinji

1Festival entries

★Avg. rating

“It approaches in silence, settles in with unhurried grace, and ultimately stirs the deepest chambers of the heart. A masterpiece from Aoyama Shinji, a farewell gift from one who has now left us.” — Director BONG Joon-ho Eureka is the second installment in Aoyama Shinji’s ‘Kitakyushu Trilogy’ (which includes Helpless, Sad Vacation). It stands not only as his representative work but also as one of the essential films in any discussion of 21st-century cinema. Eureka reaches new lives, new landscapes and new cinema screens, traveling through the echoes of John Ford’s The Searchers (1956), Ozu Yasujiro, and Jean-Luc Godard. Shot in monotone with slow lateral tracking and music, the film records in detail their languid, ominous, bleak, and anxious days into its very form. Also it resonates with the landscape, sunlight, wind, footsteps, and gestures and creates a mood both tranquil and chilling. We come to realize his absence right after being moved by Aoyama Shinji′s heart that patiently waits for his characters to recover, slowly, from grief and loss. What will we witness in the final scene of Eureka after Shinji′s death? No - what is that we can no longer see in the final scene?

Stills5

Film details

Director: AOYAMA Shinji
Country/Region: Japan
Year: 2000
Length: 218min
Original language: Japanese
Elsewhere: Letterboxd IMDb Wikidata TMDB Douban

Director

AOYAMA Shinji

Credits

Director: AOYAMA Shinji
Producer: Takenori SENTÔ
Cast: Kôji YAKUSHO, Aoi MIYAZAKI, Masaru MIYAZAKI
Screenplay: AOYAMA Shinji
Cinematography: Masaki TAMURA
Editing: AOYAMA Shinji
Music: AOYAMA Shinji
Production company: DENTSU Music And Entertainment, Imagica Corp., J Works, Les Films de L′Observatoire, Suncent CinemaWorks, Tokyo Theatres
World sales: Wild Bunch