Official Selection from Japan for the 87th Academy Awards® Best Foreign Language Film

The Light Shines Only There is based on a novel by Yasushi Sato published in 1989, one year before his death by suicide at the age of 41. Focusing on people left behind by Japan's economic boom, Sato's works are indebted to the works of Albert Camus, with their common themes of alienation and humane focus on the lives of the working class.

 

[SYNOPSIS]
In a Japanese port town, Tatsuo, a traumatized man, spends his days drifting aimlessly and his nights drinking himself to oblivion. Whiling his hours away at a pachinko parlor, he meets Takuji, a young man on parole who impulsively invites him to a shabby house on the outskirts of town. There, Tatsuo glimpses Takuji’s bedridden father and callous mother, and meets his world-weary older sister Chinatsu. While immediately drawn to each other, romance is an unaffordable luxury for the emotionally closed-off Tatsuo and the disillusioned Chinatsu, who sells herself to provide for her family and keep her brother out of jail. As Tatsuo and Chinatsu take tentative steps towards a relationship, the happy-go-lucky Takuji latches onto Tatsuo, binding their fates. Each step they take to build a better life sets off a chain of actions that have devastating consequences.

[CAST & STAFF]
Starring: Go Ayano, Chizuru Ikewaki, Masaki Suda
Directed by: Mipo O "The Sakai’s Happiness", "You Are a Good Kid"

Originally written by: Yasushi Sato
Screenplay written by: Ryo Takada

[AWARDS]

- 2014 Montreal World Film Festival: Best Director
- 2014 Raindance Film Festival: Best International Feature

[TRAILER]


Latest adaptation of a novel written by Yasushi Sato "OVER THE FENCE"