Experiencing Interruptions?

ETERNAL

German war-time experiments, Symphony No. 9 led by Furtwängler, and conch shell poison. This is a tale of love and science fiction depicting the fate of a couple shaped by these three entwining elements unbound by time.

Those who consume the poison of the mutated conch shells see vivid hallucinations of their deceased loved ones.
They are chained to their desire of intaking the poison again in hopes of reuniting with these sweet illusions. Eventually, these hallucinations take control of their victims, leading them to the depths of the sea. Keiichiro Kurusu is yet another prey of this poison, haunted by a hallucination of his deceased wife. However, he discovers a way to implant the soul of his actual wife into these hallucinations. The answer lay in an experiment conducted in Germany near the end of the War and a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 led by a world-famous master-conductor.

  • Shin Saito
    Director
  • Shin Saito
    Writer
  • Shin Saito
    Producer
  • Sayaka Saito
    Producer
  • Kyoichi Komoto
    Key Cast
    "Keiichiro Kurusu"
  • Masami Kimura
    Key Cast
    "Harumi Kurusu"
  • Kana Godo
    Key Cast
    "Remi Sutani"
  • Makoto Yamashiro
    Key Cast
    "Ruruko Ando"
  • Kiwamu Yokouchi
    Music
  • Sayaka Saito
    Director of photography
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    巻貝たちの歓喜
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi, Drama, Love story
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 30 minutes 13 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 19, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    1,000,000 JPY
  • Country of Origin:
    Japan
  • Country of Filming:
    Japan
  • Language:
    Japanese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • ISTANBUL FILM AWARDS JUNE 2020

    BEST FOREIGN FEATURE FILM, BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FEATURE FILM
  • Sweden Film Awards JUNE 2020

    FEATURE FILM FINALIST, BEST ACTRESS FEATURE FILM FINALIST, BEST ACTOR FEATURE FILM FINALIST, FIRST FEATURE FILM FINALIST
  • VEGAS MOVIE AWARDS 2020 JULY EDITION

    BEST INDIE FEATURE(AWARDS OF PRESTIGE), BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (AWARDS OF PRESTIGE)
  • Manhattanhenge Film

    Best Foreign Film Winner
  • Gold Movie Awards
    London
    United Kingdom
    BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM(SEMI-FINALIST), BEST ACTOR(SEMI-FINALIST Kyoichi Komoto), BEST SCREENPLAY(Semi-Finalist)
Director Biography - Shin Saito

Born in 1972.
He entered Yamagata University in 1992. While conducting research on detection devices for X-rays radiating from black holes, he directed 20 short films as a member of the film society in his six years there, including graduate school. Completing his graduate studies at Yamagata University in 1998, he began making independent films in 2001 while based in Shiojiri, Nagano. He has continued making films while based in Saitama since 2014.
(Ozu Yasujiro Kinen Tateshina Kogen Film Festival, Ueda Jokamachi Film Festival, Shotengai Film Festival ALWAYS Matsumoto no yuhi, Japan Art Center Video Grand Prix, Damah Film Festival in Hiroshima, Kozaka Honmachi Itchome Film Festival, Love Story Film Festival, Obu Short Film Festival, etc)

His distinctive style blends character conflict, social messages, and humor. Rejecting the notion of making independent films as a step toward commercial filmmaking, he seeks a message and production process unique to independent film, regarding it as a different medium of expression to commercial film. With a directing style that involves making character outlines and refining the emotion through repeated rehearsals with actors, in principle he wants even very competent actors to build up their performances from scratch. This lengthens the production period, but he keeps on refining until satisfied, considering not being bound by deadlines a strength of independent filmmaking.

Filmography 2005~
“How many bytes is your trouble”(2005), “Cats hunter”(2006), “Soulmate”(2008), “Seba-su-chan”(2010), “Crime, Panishment and Freedom”(2012), “tick-tack-less”(2013), “The Only and Everything”(2016), “imperfect world”(2019) Co-director with Kyoichi Komoto (Directed the second episode of the three-part series).

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Director Statement

The key point of this story is Time.
Humans are bound by the flow of time. However, the appearance of the protagonist's deceased wife, Harumi, clearly goes against this flow. I was aiming to convey a bond in which the flow of time was meaningless. They were together in both the past and future. The last scene of this movie brings us back to the past, or rather, we were right there from the start. I wished to show that they were always in that time-frame, being together come what may. As long as we are in this world, we are bound by the flow of time, fated to grow old, and eventually die. Here, my goal was to depict love as an everlasting force capable of crossing the boundaries of time.