Works http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/ en Copyright 2008 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:50:19 +0900 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification The Mourning Forest (Mogari no Mori) High-profile, the grand-prix-winning film at the Cannes International Film Festival 2007.
Kawase Naomi, the grand-prix winner at the Cannes the first time in seventeen years as a Japanese director, as well as the first female director winning this award.
Kawase's great challenging work!

In a village among mountains, western Nara prefecture in Japan. Shigeki lives peacefully at a retirement home with fond memories of his late wife. Machiko, newly-appointed caretaker to the home, also lost her child in an accident and lives her life with the sense of loss and sadness. Shigeki and Machiko, getting over the two opposite positions, care-receiver and care-taker, gradually come to understand each other as two persons in the same situation that live in mourning their beloved ones' death.
One day, they go visit the grave of Shigeki's wife in a forest. In the forest, filled with the primordial energy, they encounter...

]]> http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/feature_film/the_mourning_forest_mogari_no/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/feature_film/the_mourning_forest_mogari_no/ Feature Films Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:50:19 +0900 Music video, "Mata Kaerukara" by UNDER GRAPH. http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/music_video_mata_kaerukara_by/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/music_video_mata_kaerukara_by/ CM / PV / TV Mon, 01 Jan 2007 11:09:18 +0900 Tarachime Tarachime is a documentary film which observes 'life' through childbirth.
Kawase Naomi, a film director working under the theme of family, life and death, presents the bond of life through her own childbirth experience. Since the summer of 2006, the film has been broadcast throughout Europe and awarded a number of prizes at film festivals, arousing sensations around the world.

Bearing a new life means dividing our life. First, I was planning to film from the day I conceived a child and to the moment I gave birth. But I realized, while filming, that this is not the story of "one life." In the end, the film sublimed to a higher stage on which we can witness the knot tying one life with another. - Kawase Naomi

]]> http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/documentary_film/tarachime_1/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/documentary_film/tarachime_1/ Documentary Films, etc. Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:53:04 +0900 CM, The Asahi Shimbun Company http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/cm_the_asahi_shimbun_company/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/cm_the_asahi_shimbun_company/ CM / PV / TV Sat, 01 Jan 2005 11:11:30 +0900 Essay for the monthly publication NAGOMI (TANKOSHA PUBLISHING CO., LTD.) http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/writing/essay_for_the_monthly_publicat/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/writing/essay_for_the_monthly_publicat/ Writing Sun, 01 Feb 2004 11:12:37 +0900 The 2nd CM, SUBARU R2, starring UA http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/the_2nd_cm_subaru_r2_starring/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/the_2nd_cm_subaru_r2_starring/ CM / PV / TV Thu, 01 Jan 2004 11:15:04 +0900 Essay for "Nara-machi Yoi-machi" (the Asahi Shimbun Nara Edition) http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/writing/essay_for_naramachi_yoimachi_t/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/writing/essay_for_naramachi_yoimachi_t/ Writing Thu, 01 Jan 2004 11:15:00 +0900 KAGE -Shadow- No meetings, no scripts. Time and space, an actress and photographer.
The gaze at them through a camera.
No one can predict what is going to happen in the next blink.
This is such a story, exactly the same as a life.

]]> http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/documentary_film/kage_shadow/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/documentary_film/kage_shadow/ Documentary Films, etc. Thu, 01 Jan 2004 10:49:53 +0900 CM, SUBARU R2, starring Japanese singer UA http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/cm_subaru_r2_starring_japanese/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/cm_subaru_r2_starring_japanese/ CM / PV / TV Wed, 01 Jan 2003 11:21:30 +0900 SHARASOJYU The Aso is a family of four, living in an old urban area of Nara, succeeding the Japanese ink craftsmanship from generation to generation. On the scorching hot Bon holiday, twin elder brother vanishes as if he is spirited away. The time for his family has stopped since that day, like the time of Nara, composed of its eternal history, swallows the present moment of Aso family...

5 years have passed since the incident. Now, Shun, twin younger brother, age 17, is a high school student. He draws pictures on canvases, recollecting the memories of his vanished brother. He shares faint romance with Yu, friend from childhood, but they behave awkwardly. Shun, Yu, and their families have unfocused concerns respectively and try hard to get out of the difficulties.

Some day, Yu is told the secret of her birth. And the fate of the vanished brother is clarified. Holding, in their minds, the things and the persons they lost, Shun and Yu are about to move on.

]]> http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/feature_film/sharasojyu/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/feature_film/sharasojyu/ Feature Films Wed, 01 Jan 2003 10:33:37 +0900 Music video, TAKUYA (UNIVERSAL MUSIC COMPANY) http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/music_video_takuya_universal_m/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/music_video_takuya_universal_m/ CM / PV / TV Fri, 01 Feb 2002 10:20:41 +0900 CM "Minna no Dosuru?" for AIFUL CORPORATION http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/cm_minna_no_dosuru_for_aiful_c/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/cm_minna_no_dosuru_for_aiful_c/ CM / PV / TV Tue, 01 Jan 2002 09:26:40 +0900 Essay for the literary monthly GUNZO (Kodansha Co., Ltd.) http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/writing/essay_for_the_literary_monthly/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/writing/essay_for_the_literary_monthly/ Writing Tue, 01 Jan 2002 08:32:46 +0900 Letter from a Yellow Cherry Blossom Nishii Kazuo, a photo critic. He is the last chief editor for the Camera Mainichi magazine, rushing through his time with Araki Nobuyoshi and Moriyama Daido as provocative artists in the photograph world. In the fall of 2001, Kawase receives a call from Nishii. "I cannot live longer than two months. Would you film me, to my last breath? I'll count on you, Kawase."

His saying "count on you" sticks in Kawase's head, and on the following day she starts visiting him in the hospice in Tokyo with a camera. The time left for Nishii gradually and surely passes, and Kawase tries to film the inspirations she gets from his existence.

Nishii also tries hard to answer what she questions while coughing in front of the camera. Furthermore, he points his still camera to take photos of Kawase at the same time she films him. Here, two persons film each other, and their spiritual exchange is being represented through each camera. This is not a hospital diary. This is a story of memory; Nishii and Kawase reach each other's hearts by sharing the same moment. This is a story of token, a token of life. Nishii, while being in the sickbed, wraps up two books, and ends his life on 25th of November 2001.

What I am doing is to leave something behind in this world. I'm filming under this simple theme. I film photographs, words, voices, smiles, tears. And it sometimes brings me pain, heartache. At least, the miraculous fact that I met you drives my life as an auteur. I simply present it back to you. - Kawase Naomi

]]> http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/documentary_film/letter_from_a_yellow_cherry_bl/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/documentary_film/letter_from_a_yellow_cherry_bl/ Documentary Films, etc. Tue, 01 Jan 2002 01:28:36 +0900 Music video, JUDY AND MARY (EPIC Records Japan Inc.) http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/music_video_judy_and_mary_epic/ http://www.kawasenaomi.com/en/works/cm_pv_tv/music_video_judy_and_mary_epic/ CM / PV / TV Sun, 01 Apr 2001 11:36:37 +0900