PFF: Tatsushi Ômori's THE WHISPERING OF THE GODS (GERUMANIUMU NO YORU)

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Tatsushi Ômori's The Whispering of the Gods (Gerumaniumu no yoru - or "Germanium no yoru", if you prefer back-transliterations) is scheduled to have its U.S. première at the Philadelphia Film Festival (PFF) on April 8th, and to subsequently be screened there on April 9th and 12th. The movie had its world première at the Tokyo International Film Festival (Tôkyô Kokusai Eigasai) on October 22, 2005, its international (i.e., outside-of-Japan) première at the Locarno International Film Festival (Festival Internazionale del Film Locarno) on August 11th of last year, and its North American première at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma de Montréal (FNC) on October 24th of last year. Arato Film Inc. (K.K. Arato Eiga Jimusho) released it theatrically in Japan on December 17, 2005.

The screenplay for The Whispering of the Gods (Gerumaniumu no yoru) was written by Yoshio Urasawa, based on the eponymous novel Gerumaniumu no yoru by Mangetsu Hanamura. The movie stars Hirofumi Arai as Rô, Léona Hirota (Hirota Reona) as Sister Theresa, Megumi Sawara as Kyôko, Keita Kimura as Tôru, Nao Ômori as Ukawa, Takayuki Tsuwa as Kita, Genta Dairaku as the scout master, Masashi Yamamoto as Brother Akabane, Akifumi Miura as Arakawa, Akaji Maro as the elderly shopkeeper, Renji Ishibashi as Komiya, and Kei Satô as Father Togawa.

Here's a description of The Whispering of the Gods from the PFF website: "The most controversial -- and perhaps the most acclaimed -- Japanese drama in recent years makes its American debut, presenting the shocking and explicit portrait of a sexual abuse victim's return to the seminary that housed his violation.

Pre-eminent Japanese cinema critic Donald Richie called it "the most powerful Japanese film of the year." Japan Times critic Mark Schilling selected it as one of the ten best films of the year. Most astonishingly, the film's producer Genjiro Arato actually constructed a special theater on the grounds of a national park for the sole purpose of screening the film. The Whispering of the Gods is the most controversial Japanese film in years, yet this 2005 production is only now making its slightly belated American premiere (but you might understand why other festivals may have been afraid to touch this one). First-time director Tatsushi Ômori's startling and graphic drama deals with the collision of the sacred and the profane, surveying the consequences of sexual abuse in the most unflinching way imaginable. (Sensitive viewers are cautioned, as the film contains explicit sexuality as well as images of animal cruelty.) Rou returns to the rural seminary farm where he studied as a boy and was molested by priests. Rou has recently had a history of violence, and he brings this anger to the seminary, triggering a series of atrocities within the seemingly peaceful retreat -- indeed, much of Whispering consists of sequences of sexual perversion that allow Ômori to comment on the cycle of abuse and how the distortion of sexuality and spirituality can create hell on earth. Featuring painterly cinematography of wintry landscapes by Ryo Otsuka, Whispering can be recommended only for the brave viewer, but it remains an extraordinary debut."

For more information on The Whispering of the Gods, see ScreenAnarchy's tenth, ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second, and first articles on it.