Private Project

Empty Room

One cannot see a room without no one.
Satoko and Tetsuto live together with the intention of getting married. They are planning to pay their respects to Tetsuto’s mother this weekend, but they have prepared a small lie about how they first met. They had been spending ordinary lives until one day, Tetsuto disappeared. He was acting a little weird the night before, before going to work. As Satoko goes on to search for Tetsuto, she finds a new side of him that she never knew.
The story now goes back to the morning that Tetsuto disappeared. It seems the same but a totally different world.
The day after Tetsuto said he doesn’t want to go to work, Satoko quit her temp job and spent the night with her ex boyfriend. The next morning, she disappears. This is a story that observes a mundane life of a couple.

  • Keita Taguchi
    Director
  • Keita Taguhi
    Writer
  • Keita Taguchi
    Producer
  • Ayano Kojima
    Key Cast
    "Satoko"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    誰もいない部屋
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 26 minutes 3 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    September 27, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    600,000 JPY
  • Country of Origin:
    Japan
  • Country of Filming:
    Japan
  • Language:
    Japanese
  • Shooting Format:
    RED
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1:1.85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Two film Directors Negishi Risa and Taguchi Keita
    Tokyo
    Japan
    September 28, 2019
    International Premiere
Director Biography - Keita Taguchi

Director’s Profile
Keita Taguchi was born in 1986 in Okayama Prefecture. He graduated from Sophia University with a bachelor’s degree in physics. He is the 55th graduating class of Japan Writer Guild and has gone on to work in the production department as a freelancer. His first independent feature film, “The day the Nagura Team disbanded” was screened at K’s cinema for two weeks as a late show. He was also nominated for a rookie award. This is his second feature film.

The day the Nagura Team disbanded (2015/112min), The Scar (2016/48min), Inner Worlds (2018/54min), Before Parting (2019/56min)

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I did not shoot this film to depict a certain theme or story. I wanted to create a film about love in ordinary lives of mature adults.
Finding happiness through loving someone, eating something after waking up, earning money from work and being with someone. Going to sleep feeling alone. I’m interested in such mundane lives. How do we come to terms with our private and public lives?
There was just another mundane incident this year where a woman in her 30’s was stabbed by her co-worker. The assailant and the victim were both around the same age as me. How much did this man love this woman? Did the woman loathe the man from the beginning? I cannot find out the true emotions that lie between this couple, but I do know the sad fact that this man killed the woman. I felt like I was hit by the cruel truth that reality is not as beautiful as a film. This incident was one of the things that triggered me to make this film.
I feel like we all live in a very small world. Japanese society these days have smaller communities where relationships between the individuals have become stronger. What can someone who feels trapped in such a small world do to keep living? I want to peek inside people’s minds by focusing on small everyday events, both in and out of our lives.