
North American Premiere
Keiko Tsuruoka’s film is at once traditional and contemporary: it gently mixes present-day gender and sexuality politics with the old-fashioned Japanese domestic drama. Traditional lacquerwork kitchenware is the Aoki family’s legacy, handed down to patriarch Seishiro (Kaoru Kobayashi) by his now-ailing father (Masayuki Suzuki). Seishiro expects to pass it in turn to his son Yu (Ryota Bando), but Yu has no interest in the craft—quite unlike daughter Miyako (Mayu Hotta), who loves it dearly. The stage is set for conflict, as established cultural traditions collide with modern mores…
Tsugaru Lacquer Girl features fine performances from its ensemble cast. As the father, Kobayashi assumes a mask of stern stoicism that melts slowly but surely; another player of note is Toshiya Miyata as Yu’s kindly boyfriend. Hotta, however, is the centre of the film, and her performance as the heroine is at once gentle and luminous. Like the artisans that are his subject, Tsuruoka has crafted a modest but beautiful work; sit back, relax, and let it warm your heart.
October 4 & 6: Q&A with director Keiko Tsuruoka
Supported by
Media Partner
Mayu Hotta, Ryota Bando, Toshiya Miyata, Reiko Kataoka, Kaoru Kobayashi
Japan
2023
Panorama
In Japanese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Natsuko Mori, Hitoshi Endo, Tatsuya Matsuoka, Koichiro Fukuoka
Screenwriter
Keiko Tsuruoka, Kensaku Kojima
Cinematography
Wataru Takahashi
Editor
Shinichi Fushima
Production Design
Hinako Kasuga
Original Music
Hiroki Nakano
Director

Keiko Tsuruoka
Born in Nagano Prefecture in 1988, Keiko Tsuruoka began making movies while attending Rikkyo University. Her graduation work, Town of Whales (2012), won the Grand Prize at the 2012 PIA Film Festival and was shown at the Berlin IFF, the Busan IFF and many other film festivals around the world. She directed her second film My First Love (2013), which was presented at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Filmography: Town of Whales (2012); My First Love (2013); Lingering Memories (2015); Utsuroi no hyohonbako (2016); Makuko (2019)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Graduate
In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).
blur: To the End
Now in their late 50s, Britpopsters blur (of Song 2 fame) do a celebratory lap of Great Britain culminating in their first ever Wembley Stadium show in this appealing observational doc. A companion piece to the concert film Live at Wembley Stadium.
Midnight Cowboy
Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are street hustlers on different ends of the innocence / experience spectrum who establish something more than a business partnership in the seedy world of late 60s New York City in John Schlesinger's New Hollywood classic.
Sinners
This year's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
The Headless Woman
The pictures tell the story -- and you better not blink -- when Veronica (the superb Maria Onetto) hits something on the road home. But what? She is too traumatized, or panic-stricken, to go back and look, and her fears are too terrible to acknowledge.