Part of the 2022 season: What Lies Beneath

Shrieking in the Rain

Ame ni sakebe ba,  雨に叫べば

Director UCHIDA Eiji

Cast MATSUMOTO Marika, OYAMA Maeko, MOTOLA Serena

UK Premiere, 2021, 102 min, English Subtitles

First time director HAYASHI Hanako (MATSUMOTO Marika) has fought tooth and nail to land her debut feature film gig. Now on the studio set in the summer of 1988 and trying her best to realise her artistic vision without compromises, she is besieged by problems from all sides as she approaches the shooting of the film’s climatic love scene, which is heavy in eroticism. A subpar script and a melodramatic cast are the least of her worries as Hanako must also contend with problems such as challenges to her authority arising from her primarily male crew, finance-oriented producers, and the dreaded visit of a Film Certification Committee officer who’s looking to cut scenes from the film to avoid an R rating. Can she fight against them all?

Prolific director UCHIDA Eiji’s eighties nostalgia and behind-the-scenes look at the pressures of a professional film studio is a realistic picture of the Japanese film industry of that decade, and is both entertaining and thought-provoking.

©2021 TOEI / TOEI VIDEO

Past screenings