Retake directed by Kota Nakano is the winner of the fourth Obayashi Prize at Japan Cuts: Festival of New Japanese Film.
Retake starring Yuta Muto, Urara, and Areina Takano follows a high school student who decides to make a movie over summer break with her friends. Old friendships are tested, new friendships are made, and secrets and crushes are revealed as the group makes their film. Retake is a dear celebration of adolescence and the raw joy of cinema.
The jury commented, “With its inventiveness, simplicity and sense of play, Kota Nakano’s Retake is at once a flirty, sun-drenched teen comedy and a reflective, Hong Sang-soo-esque meditation on the blurry line between reality and fiction. We were impressed by the film’s raw, touching performances, its lack of affect, and the way it reminded us that the smallest choices have repercussions that ripple ever outward like the rippling waters seen throughout the film.”
The jury also recognized director/actor Urara Matsubayashi’s directorial debut Blue Imagine with a Special Mention for “tackling sexual harassment so directly, an important issue facing the film industry in Japan and beyond. We were impressed by its positive portrayal of women in solidarity, offering support, understanding and community to each other, throughout the film’s many conversations.”
The film is selected from titles within Next Generation—the festival’s sole competitive section introduced in 2020 dedicated to independently produced narrative feature films from emerging filmmakers in Japan.
Named after the late filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi (1938-2020), the award was created to acknowledge Obayashi’s legacy and to encourage the continued development of Japanese independent cinema through the festival’s Next Generation section. The winner will receive a trophy and monetary award of $3,000 (USD). This year’s iteration of the Next Generation section is comprised of six titles: Urara Matsubayashi’s Blue Imagine, Gen Nagao’s Motion Picture: Choke, Noriko Yuasa’s Performing KAORU’s Funeral, Toshihiko Tanaka’s Rei, Koto Nakano’s Retake and Shun Nakagawa’s Sayonara, Girls.
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