Directed by:
Shunji IwaiScreenplay:
Shunji IwaiCinematography:
Chigi KanbeComposer:
Mako KuwabaraCast:
黒木華, Gô Ayano, Hideko Hara, Cocco, Tomoko Mariya, りりィ, Toru Nomaguchi, Soko Wada, 佐生有語, 金田明夫, 夏目ナナ, 堀内正美, Gô Jibiki, 野口雅弘, Hyunri, Sakiko Katō, Arisa ŌmoriPlots(1)
Director Iwai Shunji (All About Lily Chou-Chou, Hana and Alice) returns to SIFF with what could be his magnum opus, A Bride for Rip Van Winkle. Nanami is a struggling high-school teacher engaged to a man she met through social media. With the wedding fast approaching, and with no relatives except for her divorced parents, she needs to find guests to fill out the bride's side of the family. Enter Amuro, a jack-of-all-trades who arranges to hire actors to play her family members at the wedding. Once married, Nanami gives up teaching and settles into the role of a housewife. Her contented life is upended when Amuro reappears and tells her that he knows her husband is having an affair. With the sudden disintegration of her marriage, Nanami finds herself single again, and in dire need of money. Once again Amuro is there to help her with a job offer as a housekeeper at a beautiful mansion. The place is mostly empty, except for fellow housekeeper Mashiro - and a variety of poisonous sea creatures lurking in large tanks around the premises - and as time passes the pair's relationship evolves in an unexpected direction. A Bride for Rip Van Winkle is a beautiful, deceptively complex and multilayered film, as touching as it is funny. (Seattle International Film Festival)
(more)Cast
黒木華
Japan
Best movies:
Wolf Children (2012)
The Boy and the Beast (2015)
Every Day a Good Day (2018)
Gô Ayano
Japan
Best movies:
Love Exposure (2008)
Bunny Drop (2011)
I Have to Buy New Shoes (2012)
Hideko Hara
Japan
Best movies:
Shall We Dance? (1996)
26 Years Diary (2006)
Not Quite Dead Yet (2020)
Cocco
Japan
Best movies:
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
Kotoko (2011)
Tomoko Mariya
Japan
Best movies:
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
りりィ
Japan
Best movies:
Vacation (2007)
Close-Knit (2017)
Linda Linda Linda (2005)
Toru Nomaguchi
Japan
Best movies:
Drawing Closer (2024)
I Just Didn't Do It (2006)
Always: Sunset on Third Street 2 (2007)
Soko Wada
Japan
Best movies:
The Longest Night in Shanghai (2007)
The Lightning Tree (2010)
Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)
佐生有語
Japan
Best movies:
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
金田明夫
Japan
Best movies:
The Funeral (1984)
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
Death Note: Light Up the New World (2016)
夏目ナナ
Japan
Best movies:
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
Prisoner 701 Sasori (2008)
堀内正美
Japan
Best movies:
True Mothers (2020)
After the Flowers (2010)
Spiral (2000)
Gô Jibiki
Japan
Best movies:
April Story (1998)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
野口雅弘
Japan
Best movies:
After the Rain (1999)
Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World (2004)
Zegen (1987)
Hyunri
Japan
Best movies:
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (2021)
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
Fate (2008)
Sakiko Katō
Japan
Best movies:
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
The Limit of Sleeping Beauty (2017)
Arisa Ōmori
Japan
Best movies:
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle (2016)
Tag (2015)