Part of the 2024 season: Unforgettable

Sabakan

Sabakan, サバカン

Director KANAZAWA Tomoki

Cast BANKA Ichiro, HARADA Konosuke, ONO Machiko, KUSANAGI Tsuyoshi

2022, 96 min, English subtitles

In 1986, HISADA (BANKA Ichiro), a young boy surrounded by a loving family in a small village in Nagasaki, befriends fellow fifth-grader TAKEMOTO Kenji (HARADA Konosuke), who is shunned by others due to his family’s poverty. One day, young HISADA decides, rather gingerly, to join TAKEMOTO on an adventure to Boomerang Island, where they hope to bear witness to a pod of dolphins reported to be in the area. This mini-adventure deepens their friendship and gives them a summer holiday to remember. Not long after their return, however, a heart-breaking event puts their ongoing friendship in peril…

Reminiscent of Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me, Sabakan marks KANAZAWA Tomoki’s directorial debut. Set amongst the beautiful, peaceful landscapes of Nagasaki, KANAZAWA’s hometown, this heart-warming tale is teeming with nostalgia for the excitement of childhood and filled with heaps of authentic 1980s Japanese culture, offering something for the inner child in all of us!

 

世界中で大ヒットしたNetflix配信ドラマ「サンクチュアリ -聖域-」の脚本を手掛けた、元お笑い芸人の金沢知樹による初監督作品。金沢が自身の子どものころの思い出を映像化した青春ドラマ。1986年の長崎で、愛情深い両親と弟と暮らす小学5年生の久田は、家が貧しくクラスメートから避けられている竹本と、ブーメラン島へ冒険に出掛けることになる。

(Special thanks to Eikoku News Digest)

Past screenings