Heaven Is Still Far Away

Director: Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi

2016 / 92min / DCP

Heaven is Still Far Away, 38 min., 2016
Touching the Skin of Eeriness, 54 min., 2013


A duo of midlengths dealing in love and loss courtesy of Drive My Car director Hamaguchi. In Heaven is Still Far Away, the curious relationship between Yuzo, a censorship mosaic artist for porn videos, and Mitsuki, the high school girl with whom he shares his apartment, evolves into an even more curious ghost story. Touching the Skin of Eeriness begins with Chihiro moving in with his older half-brother Togo and Togo’s girlfriend, Satomi, after his father’s death. Embraced by Togo and Satomi but still terribly lonely, Chihiro becomes fixated on a dancer named Naoya, to whom he becomes a creative partner, the tension implicit in their so-close-yet-so-far dance routine opening the door to themes we might call Hamaguchi-esque: the inextricable, confusing interrelation of life and art.