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A Foggy Paradise

Tatsuya is a traffic counter and caregiver to his mother. Kurage regularly visits a massive housing complex to care for an elderly man in a vegetative state until childhood friend Ame takes the two of them on a road trip. In this film, two unrelated narratives advance parallel to each other without specifying a setting, time, or destination. Director Kotsuji Yohei worked around the clock utilizing sharp camerawork to cultivate a distinctive sci-fi-esque atmosphere with the intention of "capturing a foggy moment in time" to portray two stories of life and death for his full-length film debut.

  • Yohei Kotsuji
    Director
    Room on a shore(2017)
  • Yohei Kotsuji
    Writer
    Room on a shore(2017)
  • Yuya Okutsu
    Key Cast
    "Tatsuya"
    Firing The Lighter Gun(2022),In the Wake(2021),shing shing shing(2011)
  • Masatoshi Lee
    Key Cast
    "Kurage"
  • Yasumi Yajima
    Key Cast
    "Mother"
    Forgotten Planets(2018),Edaha no koto(2017)
  • Haru Naito
    Key Cast
    "Ame"
  • Tom Kiran
    Key Cast
    "old man"
    Aitakute Tamaranai(2022)
  • Ryo Teranishi
    Cinematography
    FORGOTTEN(2021),MIIKO IN A LOFT(2020)
  • Aya Kotsuji
    Editor
    Room on a shore(2017)
  • Masahiro Nishino
    Electrician
    Distance in Between(2021)
  • Hikaru Nakashima
    Sound
  • Tatsunari Ota
    Sound
    There Is a Stone(2023)
  • Osier (Luck Gun)
    Music
  • Yuko Igari
    Production Designer
  • Kenshiro Ishikura
    Production Designer
  • Ayano Yamazaki
    Production Designer
  • Tadayoshi Fujimura
    Production Designer
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    2 hours 48 minutes 2 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 14, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    2,000,000 JPY
  • Country of Origin:
    Japan
  • Country of Filming:
    Japan
  • Language:
    Japanese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Tokyo
    Japan
    October 26, 2023
    World Premier
    Tokyo International Film Festival 2023 Competition
Director Biography - Yohei Kotsuji

Born in Fukui, Japan in 1985. After 1 year of studying movie production at ENBU seminar , currently working as a teacher at a special support school while producing independent movies. This is 1st feature film for me, and was screened as a world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2023 Competition. I got Sindo Kaneto Award 2023 Top Prize which is given to the most talented new director of the year in Japan.

【Filmorgaphy】
・A Foggy Paradise(2023, 167min)
Tokyo International Film Festival 2023 Competition
Sindo Kaneto Award 2023 Top Prize

・Room on a shore(2017, 19min)
Sendai short film festival 2017 New Talent Competition

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

I want to create films as if you can see the landscapes from a car window. To me, that is “Knowing a small part of the world for the first time.” Therefore, I stand in a position “where narrative film is also a documentary recording actors act their role,” and value
filming impromptu during rehearsals and at filming locations. It is because I am interested in finding new discoveries when giving the role to the actor instead of seeing controlled acting through scripts or directions.

Another thing I value is discovering “moments that are vague and uncertain and mean nothing at a glimpse” instead of forming a story. In actual life, things always happen suddenly without expectation, and it is impossible to understand everything. With production, I also aim to make films that are not clear and easy to understand, but films that touch the incompleteness of actual life.

This film has two parallel stories about life and death.These are family stories which origin in my personal experience.This film is also experiment to see what would happens if a film has different parallel stories.