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"Sabu is in his most fun-loving element, stirring Okinawa's magical folk art into a Capraesque yarn that ... sends up the impulse to rewrite one's own destiny in this high-octane romantic fantasy." – Variety
Chasuke (Kenichi Matsuyama, who played Toru Watanabe in Norwegian Wood, MIFF 2011) is a lowly tea server in Heaven, waiting on the scriptwriters who unceasingly pen the life stories of the humans on Earth. It's a complicated process, with each character's plot and narrative interacting with and affecting countless others', and things only get trickier as The Man demands more avant-garde adventures. When a mishap accidentally condemns Yuri, a mute human, to die before her time, Chasuke is sent to Earth to try to fix things.
Adapting his own unpublished novel, Sabu (Kanikosen, MIFF 2010) crafts a cheeky, action-packed homage to film history while simultaneously satirising Hollywood clichés. Produced by Takeshi Kitano's production company, Chasuke's Journey is a genre-hopping roller-coaster ride of whimsy and fun.
