In competition films

Platinum Grand Prize

Harmony

Tuesday 3 May 2016 10:40 pm
Cinema Lumière - Sala Mastroianni

Harmony

by Takashi Nakamura, Michael Arias – Japan, 2015

(120', Original with subtitles)

It is a world reconstructed after the global chaos called “the Maelstrom”. In reaction to that event, the world put great value on extreme health-consciousness and societal harmony.Societies became centered around advanced medical care. But one girl, Miach Mihie, spends her days thinking of ways to defy this kind, benevolent world.

She and two other girls who are drawn to her attempt suicide one day. 13 years later, after having survived the suicide attempt, Tuan Kirie still despises the exceedingly kind Japanese society, which is why she now works on the front line of a peacekeeping operation in a warzone. But suddenly, a criminal organization causes the deaths of several thousand people. The group believes the world has become too used to peace, so they aim to plunge it into terror once more. Tuan suspects her old friend Miach, supposedly dead, is somehow involved. Tuan hits the road to prove whether her former friend with a death wish is actually alive and well.

 

Director: 

Takashi Nakamura, Michael Arias

Takashi Nakamura was born in 1955 in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan. He's an animator and an anime director. He worked on a 1988 cyberpunk action film AKIRA as an animation 
supervisor and has worked for many other films. He directed his first feature film Catnapped! in 1995. Among his other works are A Tree of Palme, which was an official selection of the Berlin Film Festival, The Portrait Studio (Shahinkan), and Bubu and Bubulina.
Michael Arias has had a colorful filmmaking career, spanning the worlds of VFX, animation, and traditional storytelling. After a young start on effects-heavy films as THE ABYSS and TOTAL RECALL, and with directors as diverse as Spike Lee and the Coen Brothers, he relocated to Japan, where he produced the popular MATRIX spin-off THE ANIMATRIX. In 2006 Michael directed the award-winning anime TEKKONKINKREET and then the live-actioner HEAVEN’S DOOR, and he continues to split his time between animation and live-action filmmaking.
 
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