2024 Shanghai International Film Festival
Asian New Talent Category Nominated
郷 VICISSITUDE
ごう
Director Takuro Ijichi
A wordless voyage of the soul
A deeply immersive experience that resonates not with the mind, but with the heart.
A 90-minute visual poem, woven almost entirely without words.
Through the quiet footsteps of a boy named Gaku, memory and landscape begin to blur,
and a long-lost sense of wonder—the spirit of home—softly stirs once more within the heart.
CAST
A gentle reminder of what it means to truly live.
Synopsis：
Grueling training runs echo with militaristic discipline. Shouts, drills, and sudden outbursts of emotion punctuate the days.
Gaku, a high school baseball player, navigates a world marked by rigidity and social adversity.
He confronts injustice and the irrationality of human nature, faltering under their silent weight.
As the seasons turn, so too does the emotional landscape within him.
Beneath it all, a quiet yet unrelenting question persists: What does it truly mean to live?
Review
“A breathtaking visual experience—overwhelming in its beauty. A remarkable talent has emerged.”
Shanghai International Film Festival Critics
Featured on Eiga.com
“My heart trembled.”
Chinese film critic
Chinese Producer
“The director’s approach was an unexpected revelation. This is a new kind of cinema.”
European Film Critics
Sponsorship & Awards
Director, Scriptwriter, Editor
伊地知 拓郎
Takuro Ijichi
Born in Kagoshima, Japan.
From an early age, he immersed himself in cinema and music from around the world, originally dedicating himself to music creation. After graduating from high school, he moved to China alone and enrolled in the Directing Department of the Beijing Film Academy, graduating in 2022.
While still a student, his short films WHATEVER YOU WANT TO BE (2018) and The Sound of Stars (2019) were nominated at various international film festivals, with the latter winning top honors in the student category. His debut feature film VICISSITUDE received critical acclaim, earning dual nominations for Best Director and Best Feature in the Asian New Talent section at the Shanghai International Film Festival, winning the Grand Prize at the Chongqing 35mm Critics’ Week, and being officially selected by Nippon Connection in Germany. His work has led some to call him “the second coming of Akira Kurosawa.”
In VICISSITUDE, he not only directed, wrote, and edited the film, but also composed the music, designed the sound, and handled portions of the cinematography himself. He is currently developing his next project, with much anticipation surrounding his future work.
Languages: Japanese, English, Chinese
Hobbies: Fishing, Music
小川 夏果
Producer, Casting, Costume Design, Art Direction
Natsuka Ogawa
Originally from Kumamoto Prefecture, now based in Aira, Kagoshima,
she is dedicated to creating films rooted in the local community with a global perspective. After graduating from Doshisha Kori High School and Doshisha University’s Faculty of Law, she began her career in the corporate world, working in the corporate sales division of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation. She later made a bold career shift to become an actress, appearing in TV dramas and films such as Nobunaga Concerto and Keiji 7-nin, as well as commercials for brands like Ito En (Oi Ocha). In 2019, seeking new creative challenges, she enrolled at the Beijing Film Academy.
VICISSITUDE marks her first feature film as a producer. In 2021, she won the top prize in a project competition organized by the equipment manufacturer ARRI, becoming the only recipient of sponsorship from Asia—an achievement that enabled the production of VICISSITUDE.
Filmed on location in Kagoshima, Japan
