Director Nakashima and Nana Komatsu
Tag: it comes
Makoto Higa Gallery II
Nana Komatsu is Makoto Higa in Tetsuya Nakashima‘s Kuru. The younger sister of Japan’s most powerful spiritualist (Kotoko) and the girl friend of Nozaki, a freelance journalist who has specialized in the occult. Makoto is a psychic and can communicate with the ‘other world’. Out of some maternal instinct she will try to protect a child from a demonic and powerful force.
The Makoto Higa Gallery
来る Kuru, English working title ‘It Comes !’, will be released on DVD and Bluray on Wednesday July 3 in Japan. Hence the opportunity to display a selection of official pics and a few vidcaps of Nana Komatsu as Makoto Higa.
Four years after director Tetsuya Nakashima launched her acting career with The World of Kanako, he asked her to join a superb ensemble cast (Junichi Okada, Takako Matsu, Satoshi Tsumabuki and Haru Kuroki) for another challenging role.
Film Festivals
Gaga Corporation belongs to a small club of dynamic film companies from Japan that strive to push their films on the international market. Three movies starring Nana Komatsu are currently available from their International Sales Catalogue. Below is some information about those.
Farewell Song: the movie had its Japanese theatrical release on Friday May 31 (nationwide). Taiwan will follow on August 23, a Chinese trailer is now available. Last but not least, Farewell Song will premiere at the Shanghai International Film Festival in the Rhapsody section, dedicated to musicals.
It comes: director Tetsuya Nakashima‘s very personal take on horror will be screened at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea on June 29, July 4 and July 7. English page.
Samurai Marathon: European Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival on June 25 and 26. US Premiere in New York at the New York Asian Film Festival on June 28. Nana Komatsu should attend as she was chosen to receive a Rising Star AWard.
Gaga’s booth at “Les marchés du film” in Cannes (May)
Mothers and Fathers
Filmed in ether has recently published a very interesting essay on the theme of parenthood in two films which seem worlds apart on the surface. It is indeed a very original approach and a worth reading piece exploring how father and mother figures don’t fit either socially and financially or emotionally .
You’ll find below a couple of selected passages, read the whole article there: Limits and love – How Shoplifters and It Comes confront parenthood (it includes spoilers).
Hirokazu Koreeda’s Palme d’Or winning film Shoplifters and Tetsuya Nakashima’s horror blockbuster It Comes appear to have very little in common aside from their 2018 releases.
Koreeda’s beloved drama is a delicate film that uses the director’s trademark subtlety and long-standing fascination with familial relationships to explore the dynamics of an unconventional and impoverished family unit.
Tetsuya’s bloody horror meanwhile carries the filmmaker’s signature frenetic style and tells the story of a young family haunted by a mysterious demonic force.
Yet despite their genre differences, Shoplifters and It Comes share many of the same ideas and question the very nature of parenthood. What makes a good parent? What makes a family, a family? And does society allow for families outside the norm to thrive?
Pink-haired, punky shaman Makoto (Nana Komatsu) is in no way society’s ideal of a mother but she quickly forms a bond with Chisa and voices openly about her desire to have children.
This puts her in conflict with her on/off boyfriend, Nozaki (Junichi Okada) who is literally haunted by his past in the form of an ex-partner who aborted their child because he did not want to be a father. His disinterest in children is shared with Makoto’s sister Kotoko (Takako Matsu), the powerful shaman who believes she is too cold and ill-suited to have children.
Father figures
Mother figures
N.K. International 