Anata e

Anata e
Poster
Directed by	Yasuo Furuhata
Starring	Ken Takakura Yūko Tanaka Kōichi Satō Tsuyoshi Kusanagi Kimiko Yo Haruka Ayase Takahiro Miura Kyōzō Nagatsuka Hideji Ōtaki Mieko Harada Tadanobu Asano Beat Takeshi
Release date	August 25, 2012 (2012-08-25) (Japan)
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Anata e (あなたへ, To You) is a 2012 Japanese film directed by Yasuo Furuhata.^[1]

Plot[]

The story follows the journey of a man travelling some 1000 kilometres from Toyama City, Japan to his wife's hometown in Nagasaki Prefecture, in order to scatter her ashes into the sea. Along the way he travels through many famous locations (Osaka, the ruins of Takeda Castle, Shimonoseki City, the Kanmon Bridge, Moji-ku, Kitakyūshū, and Sasebo, Nagasaki), recalling experiences with his wife along the way. He also befriends and is assisted by numerous strangers.

最親愛的/Dearest/Anata e 人生無路盡飄萍 - life is like floating weeds with no harbour to call home

Dearest is a beautifully made “philosophical” 2012 film, starring Ken Takakura, 高倉 健. Takakura, who died on November 10, 2014, made his last film, his 205th, at age of 80.

The storyline is about a prison carpentry instructor, Kurashima who drove a long way to fulfill his wife wish to have her ashes scattered in the sea near her hometown.

Along the way, Kurashima met many strangers, mostly three main interesting characters.

Teruo, a widower and wandering traveler, was driving throughout Japan with no home to go back to. Teruo ended up being arrested for vandalizing places and properties. Teruo befriended Kurashima and gave him a famous poetry book 種田山頭火, from which came the film’s headline: 人生無路盡飄萍. After being arrested, Teruo told the Guard that he had lost his way in life and resorted to vandalizing.

Yuji, a seafood salesperson, was traveling/wandering through Japan. Yuji later confessed that he could not go back home to his daughter and wife as his wife was having an affair and he did not have the courage to confront her. So he traveled and traveled and traveled, from city to city, from hotel to hotel.

Nanbara, an assistant to Yuji, was a fisherman from the village of the Guard’s wife. Nanbara had incurred a large amount of debt, unable to pay the debt, he faked his death while he was out at sea fishing and caught in a torrential storm. Under a new name, Nanbara traveled along with Yuji, so he had no home to go back to.

Having fulfilled wife wish, Kurashima mailed his resignation letter and embarked on his own wandering. First stop, Kurashima handed Nanbara his daughter’s pre-wedding photo which Nanbara's wife had asked Kurashima to drop into the sea while scattering his wife's ashes at sea, so Nanbara could "see" his daughter's picture.

The film ended with Kurashima walking to his unknown journey with Nanbara standing with daughter's picture and Yuji busying serving customer not far away.

The film is about life, the helpless of life. It asks “where is the home?”

Cast[]

• Ken Takakura as Eiji Kurashima
• Yūko Tanaka as Yoko, his wife
• Kitano Takeshi as Sugino Teruo, van-driving Japanese literature teacher
• Tadanobu Asano as cop
• Tsuyoshi Kusanagi as Tamiya Yuji, food-stall cook
• Kōichi Satō as "Nanbara", food-stall cook and former fisherman
• Haruka Ayase as Naoko Hamazaki, young waitress and Nambara's daughter
• Kimiko Yo as Tamiko Hamazaki, her mother, eatery owner, and Nambara's widow/wife
• Hideji Ōtaki as Ohura Goro, elderly boat owner, and estranged father of Nambara

Production[]

Around the time of filming, Takakura was 80 years of age – much older than the probable working age of the prison carpentry instructor he was portraying (given that the common retirement age in Japan is usually 60). Hideji Ōtaki, who played the cranky old skipper, died a few months after the film's release.

References[]

External links[]

• Anata e at IMDb

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