OLD NARCISSUS

Filmmakers in attendance. Film program will be followed by Q&A.

74-year-old Yamazaki (TAMURA Taijiro), an eccentric and prideful gay man, meets the young and lonely sex worker, Leo (MIZUISHI Atomu) and for the first time in his long tumultuous life, falls in love with another person. Through this love, he finally comes to terms with and begins to forge the relationships he failed to carve during his youth with his friends and family.

This story brings to light the unfair circumstances that LGBT individuals face in Japan that go beyond issues such as marriage inequality, despite all the supposed progress in recent years. This film delves into both the history and the current situation of stigma against queer peoples and the refusal of Japanese society to see them on equal footing as straight folk through the perspective of both the young and the old. This was made into a feature film after the short film of the same name, Old Narcissus (2017), received high praise from the LGBT community after screenings in several queer film festivals throughout Japan. This will be Mr. Tamura’s first feature film.

CREDITS
Writer: Tsuyoshi Shoji
Producer: Keisuke Suda, Ken Arima, Masami Ito
Director of Photography: Hajime Kanda
Editor: Tsuyoshi Shoji
Production Designer: Keiko Katahira
Composer: Takashi Watanabe
Sound Designer: Kota Sasai