My Dad and Mr. Ito お父さんと伊藤さん
PRODUCTION NOTES
3 Incompatible Personalities. The morning of parting eventually comes what future will they choose?
Juri Ueno portrays Aya, a young woman who has grown comfortable with living life at her own pace. Her witty and laid back boyfirend, Mr. Ito, is played by Lily Franky while veteran actor, Tatsuya Fuji, takes on the role of Aya’s prickly yet strangely endearing father. The humorous banter between the three provide non-stop humor in a story that gradually builds toward an emotional climax. Giving subtle color to each character is established director, Yuki Tanada, who brings an incisive yet warm approach to the awkward relationship between an aging father and his straight-talking daughter in what amounts to a new type of “family” movie.
Yuki Tanada, Japan’s most promising female director
Taking up the megaphone is one of Japan’s most talked-about female directors, Yuki Tanada, who has already directed a string of topical movies, including “Mourning Recipe” (’13) and “Round Trip Heart” (’15). In “My Dad and Mr. Ito”, Tanada spins a colorful and lighthearted comedy rich in humorous banter that emerges naturally when three very different people suddenly have to share the same living space.
STORY
”I’m going to live with you and cover my expenses!” Thrown out of his son’s home, an aging father has to turn elsewhere. So he moves in with his daughter and her 20-year elder boyfriend, Mr. Ito! Suddenly, life becomes a crazy threesome!
A father shows up at the home of his daughter, Aya, carrying a Boston bag, a mysterious small box and an intention to stay. The trouble begins right away with an argument at dinner over the best sauce to use on pork cutlets. And forget romance when your father is sleeping in the next room separated by a paper thin wall. Oddly, however Sunday afternoons evolve into the budding of friendship between Aya’s dad and Mr. Ito. While her father has a volatile temperament which explodes like a bomb on the quiet sedentary life of the couple, each day brings with humorous little incidents that begin to forge bonds among the trio. That is until Aya finds a note from her dad one day. “I’ll be gone for a while”, it reads and he disappears. Can three very disparate people come to find a happy equilibrium in a shared life? What is the real reason behind the dad’s sudden appearance, and disappearance?
■ Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (2016)
- Vista Programme
■ JAPAN CUTS (2017)
■ 20th Shanghai International Film Festival (2017)
- Panorama
- Starring
- Juri Ueno (上野樹里), Lily Franky (リリー・フランキー), Tatsuya Fuji (藤竜也)
- Directed
- Yuki Tanada (タナダユキ)
- Screenplay
- Hisako Kurosawa (黒沢久子)
- Based on the novel
- “Otousan To Itousan” by Hinako Nakazawa (Kodansha Ltd. )
- Japan release
- October 8, 2016
- Duration
- 119 min.
- Genre
- Drama, Comedy
- Technical Specs
- Color /1:1.85/ Digital / 5.1ch