Mark Schilling Japan Correspondentdirector whose short films have garnered honors in Japan and abroad, Sato Takuma is celebrating a milestone with the selection of his first theatrical feature, “Any Crybabies Around,” by San Sebastian.
Sato set the film in his native Akita Prefecture, at the northern tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu. “I wrote a story about my own region, so I’m really nervous about the audience’s reaction,” he tells “Variety.” “I wanted to get it directly, though, not online.”A main driver of the plot is the custom of “Namahage” as practiced on Akita’s remote Oga Peninsula.
Dressed and masked as ogres from local folklore, village men go from house to house on New Year’s Eve scaring young children with the permission.
Read more on variety.com