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  • Movie Screening: North Canaries

Movie Screening: North Canaries

  • Saturday, March 23, 2013
  • 2:00 PM
  • Aratani Japan America Theater (Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, CA)

Saturday, March 23, 2013 2:00pm

Aratani Japan America Theater
244 S. San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012

Aurora Foundation is presenting its 15th Anniversary Special Commemorative Film Screening - US Premiere of "North Canaries." The movie will be presented in Japanese with English subtitles.

Synopsis
When school teacher Haru Kawashima (Sayuri Yoshinaga) is assigned to an elementary school on a remote island off the coast of Hokkaido in northern Japan, she moves there with her husband Yukio (Kyohei Shibata), only to find out that the school has only six children. However, recognizing their amazing singing ability, she organizes a choir, which begins to transform their lives. The children begin to smile, saying that school was boring before Haru’s arrival. Their voices echo throughout the beautiful island, bringing a renewed sense of joy to the island folks. 

One day, Abe (Toru Nakamura), an emotionally troubled policeman, comes to the island. Although no one is aware, Haru too has been struggling emotionally, and she begins to be attracted to Abe, seeing a shadow of herself in the dark side of him. One summer day, as she enjoys a barbeque party with her students, a tragic accident happens, causing deep internal scars in the hearts of the children. Haru ends up moving away, leaving behind her worrying father (Kotaro Satomi). Even being far away, however, all she can think of are those six children she left on the island. 

Twenty years later, as Haru works as a librarian in Tokyo, she hears the news that one of those island children has been involved in a crime. “Why that student?” she wonders, and she travels north to the island to see them again and to find the truth. There, to her surprise, she discovers that each of her students is still living in emotional pain, resulting from regrets of the past. Haru, in return, also opens her heart up to them, revealing her own struggles to them. Now the truth appears, to cut through and melt away time, which has been frozen for many years.


Director Junji Sakamoto 

Cast Sayuri Yoshinaga, Kyohei Shibata, Toru Nakamura, Kotaro Satomi, Mirai Moriyama, Hikari Mitsushima, Ryo Katsuji, Aoi Miyazaki, Eiko Koike, Ryuhei Matsuda 

Admission
$12 General Admission (Pre-sale)
$10 Student/Senior
$15 At the Door

For tickets, call Aurora Foundation at 323-882-6545
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