Dear Summer Sister
(Natsu No Imoto)
Screening on Film
Directed by Nagisa Oshima.
With Hosei Komatsu, Hiromi Kurita, Akiko Koyama.
Japan, 1972, 35mm, color, 95 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: New Yorker Films
With Hosei Komatsu, Hiromi Kurita, Akiko Koyama.
Japan, 1972, 35mm, color, 95 min.
Japanese with English subtitles.
Print source: New Yorker Films
On the occasion of Okinawa's release from American control, Oshima offered this poetic and wonderfully unpredictable exploration of the island and its inhabitants as a distorting mirror of Japan's complex and tumultuous modern history. Loosely following a spirited young Tokyo woman's travels through Okinawa in search of the half-brother she has never met, Dear Summer Sister leads us through a series of mysterious vignettes about the girl's extended family and new found Okinawan acquaintances, each of whom hold sharply different opinions about the island's history and future.