japanese film festival (3-6 March 2014)

At the RAWALPINDI ARTS COUNCIL (4 MARCH 2014, 10:30 am)

Fifteen (GAKKO IV)
Colour / 2000 / Duration 120 minutes

Daisuke Kawashima (Yuta Kanai), a ninth grader, stays home all the time, because he doesn’t like school. Without a word to his parents, he sets out on a lone journey. He starts by hitch-hiking in the suburbs of Yokohama in search of a 7,000-year-old cedar tree on the tiny Yakushima Island at the southern tip of Japan.

Through a series of interactions with different motorists, Daisuke learns much of life. During these encounters Daisuke begins to realize many things, especially how important a person’s life can be.  He learns to be more forgiving of others and realizes he is not the only one with problems.

On reaching Osaka Daisuke` climbs into a long-haul truck driven by a woman Sumire` Oba (Rei Asami) headed for Kyushu. Sumire`, a single mother supporting a son and daughter, asks him why he refuses to go to school. This conversation makes Daisuke reconsider the bonds of a family. His meeting with her son, Noboru, changes his mind about many things.

On Yakushima, Daisuke climbs the hill towards the ancient cedar. He proceeds, step by step, along a steep path until he finally beholds the huge tree. Its magnificence seems to speak to the boy and touch something deep inside him.  What started out as an escape has transformed itself into a pilgrimage. It becomes a quest where a boy learns to be a man.