Mother is a masseuse and her daughter watches, even when clients demand extra services. Grandpa is paralysed. The granddaughter changes and washes him. The three of them search for the rapist who got mother pregnant. Whores and nurses. A sick, yet beautiful film.
At the age of 15, Kotono was raped. Natsume was born as a consequence. Seventeen years later, Kotono, her crippled father Kai and her daughter live a nomadic life in a van. Kotono, who no longer speaks, works as a masseuse. Natsume is present at each appointment, even if Kotono is hired for sex. With the money she earns, the three family members hire detectives to find the rapist. When they finally track him down, it turns out he is dying.
Nemuri yusurika, the Japanese film title, means sleeping chironomid: a type of mosquito that can survive long periods of draught and extreme heat, known for its remarkable resilience and vitality: like young Natsume. The difficult life of this traumatised family at times seems perverse, but also loving. In spite of everything, they enjoy catching fish, a small hamster and their strong bond. Sakaguchi's extensive experience in documentary is evident in the film's detailed realism.
Programmer Note by Gertjan Zuilhof:
An original, idiosyncratic film. Not always comfortable to watch and, at times, somewhat perverse. We may expect a young rebel, but Sakaguchi Katsumi is a highly experienced filmmaker with a lengthy filmography. Not that he has made a lot of festival films - this being perhaps his third - but he has made well over 100 television documentaries. Many of these have dealt with the position of adolescents and the family. Which might help explain things. The filmmaker is an expert in this field, and after 100 documentaries decided to make a feature film of his vision of this subject. Both the mother and daughter in the film represent a teenage problem. The mother was raped as a teenager - an event that has scarred her for life. The filmmaker will have met many teenage girls and women with similar stories. The daughter has to live with her mother having been raped (which led to her being born), as well as a paralysed grandfather who is slowly going senile. She cannot escape the unpleasant facts that her mother is a prostitute and her grandfather incontinent.
The film is full of realistic details; there is a pinch of pink picture (Japanese soft porn), and the film is not purely realistic, as it also includes a sort of black humour.
This could act as a great example for filmmakers looking for an original approach: start by making 100 documentaries on the same subject.