OSHIKA - Winds Of Change

1. introduction
It has been 10 years since the Fukushima nuclear power plant meltdown. Nowadays, people talk about SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). However, there is a place where self-sufficiency has long been an aim of the people who live there. This is the village of Oshika in mountainous Nagano prefecture, which, like many other rural areas in Japan, is losing its population at a fast rate. In the remote Kamasawa district there is a centuries-old community where the majority of the population now consists of incomers from the city. The Korean director Myoungyoon Kim, who came to Japan as an international student, happened to meet one of them in Tokyo.

Kim's consequent visit to Oshika became the first of many. Over several years he filmed life in the village as experienced by the people who live there. For him personally this was a rich experience, accompanied by a feeling that here something difficult to articulate was happening. To express this he uses the Korean palam, a word that means both "wind" and "hope." This wind blows gently through the village. It’s a metaphor for the abundance of life close to nature, where life, like nature itself, is never static.

Oshika, especially Kamasawa, used to be a quiet place. However, since November 2016, the village's soundscape has been radically altered due to the construction of the "maglev" Linear Shinkansen line. This "dream train," which will eventually run between Tokyo and Osaka, involves the digging of long tunnels under the Japan Southern Alps.

In addition to the environmental degradation that the Linear has brought to Oshika, strains have been put on the relationship between the villagers, many of whom view the project from different perspectives.

Kim's film zooms in on these topics. It shows how the villagers are facing the day-to-day challenges of Linear construction and the changes that it is bringing to their lives.

Synopsis

Among the residents of Kamasawa is Simon Piggott, a translator originally from England, who moved to Oshika 30 years ago after living in and around Tokyo for many years. For him Oshika is somewhere special and, over shots of him and his daily life, he explains why. He has three daughters and the third one Karin is married to Tim, who comes from England but has a Japanese father. Tim says that he came to live in Oshika because of the warmth of the villagers. Another of the Kamasawa incomers is Taniguchi Noboru from Osaka, who felt suffocated in the city. His anger is aroused when cherry trees near an ancient shrine are felled by Linear contractors. Maeshima Kumi, whose family has lived in Oshika for several centuries and now runs a traditional inn, talks about her opposition to the Linear project, as does Tsuchiya Michiko, whose son manages a cattle farm that was begun by hier husband. Michiko's daughter Kaito talks about why it's important to preserve the beautiful village in which she was born for her child Fumi and the children of future generations.