Description

Depending on your calendar, it is the thirty-third year of the Showa era, or 1958. The Tokyo Tower, an inspiring monument to not only its city but to Japan’s post-war economic recovery, is slowly but surely climbing up into the sky – a sky never so beautiful as when ablaze with the setting sun. And on a street in the Yuhi District -- the name literally means “evening sun” – times may be tough, but hope for better days ahead keeps a tight-knit community happy. There’s Suzuki, whose ramshackle auto-body shop won’t ever be mistaken for the other Suzuki car company –- except by country girl Mutsuko, whose come to the big city for what she thought would be a glamorous job. Suzuki’s old pal Chagawa runs the candy store across the street, writes cheap pulp fiction to make ends meet, and locks horns with Suzuki over any old thing. And pretty new arrival Hiromi, who’s caught Chagawa’s eye, has just opened a sake bar on the corner…

Since 1973, countless Japanese have enjoyed the tragic-comic episodes and interplay of the exquisitely etched inhabitants of Yuhi District, in the popular manga Sunset on Third Street. The task of transposing is magic to the silver screen has fallen to Takashi Yamazaki, a rising figure in the realm of Japanese CGI-enhanced cinema after his success with Returner and the award-winning children’s sci-fi film Juvenile. The personalities that populate mythic Third Street are brought vividly to life by a cast that includes Yoshioka Hidetaka (The Hidden Blade), Shinichi Tsutsumi (the salaryman in Sabu’s Monday!) and the lovely Koyuki (Kurosawa’s Pulse, Kitamura’s Alive and of course The Last Samurai). With these and the exceptional talents of the prestigious ROBOT production company behind him, Yamazaki has recaptured -- with astounding detail and authenticity, never to mention a rich warmth that seems to spill out of the screen -- a time and place long gone by, but close to the hearts of so many.

—Rupert Bottenberg

“Not the usual studio set, with the occasional period car rumbling through, but a total urban environment, painstakingly re-created down to the last rusty store sign and well-thumbed manga” – Mark Schilling, JAPAN TIMES ONLINE

“A throwback to days where unbridled optimism was the norm… stands in sharp contrast to the self-important cynical brood-fests our hip young cineastes thrive on” – Chris Nelson, DREAMLOGIC.NET

Website

http://www.always3.jp/

Credits

Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Screenplay: Takashi Yamazaki, Ryota Kosawa, Ryôhei Saigan
Cast: Maki Horikita Hidetaka Yoshioka Shin'ichi Tsutsumi Koyuki Hiroko Yakushimaru
Producers: Chikahiro Ando, Keiichiro Moriya, Seiji Okuda, Shuji Abe, Nozomu Takahashi
Distributor: NTV