LOCARNO IN LOS ANGELES
APRIL 5-8, 2018
THE DOWNTOWN INDEPENDENT
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www.locarnoinlosangeles.com
Sweating the Small Stuff
Directed by Ninomiya Ryūtarō
Japan
114 min.
Friday. April 6, 3:00 pm
The Downtown Independent, 251 S Main Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012
Japanese director and actor Ninomiya Ryutaro’s second independent feature, Edaha no koto (Sweating the Small Stuff), receives its Los Angeles Premiere at Locarno in Los Angeles, April 5 – 8, hosted at the Downtown Independent.
ABOUT THE FILM
Built like a fireplug and about as talkative, 27-year-old Ryutaro works in a garage in Yokohama. He is introduced while walking, and his compact strides, arms swinging back and forth – the grand repetitive gesture of this film – is a physical manifestation of a man forcing his way through a thick fog of a life that he feels is without greater purpose. Though director and actor Ninomiya Ryutaro appears in almost every single frame of his extremely confident second independent feature Edaha no koto (Sweating the Small Stuff) – a film based on true events – we’re never quite sure what, if anything, he’s truly thinking.
Over the course of a weekend (and glimpses of the days that frame it), Ryutaro’s existence is revealed, both in terms of his typical routine – drinking with useless friends, hooking up with a waitress, getting beat-up – and one exceptional encounter: he finally decides to visit Ryuko, the mother of an old friend, who is dying from Hepatitis C. Ninomiya is reluctant in general to show his hand, so their exact relationship is unclear, though one assumes that she acted as a surrogate parent. Almost all the film’s older characters are ailing or on the verge of death, and this societal sickness is leaking its way down to the youth, who spend their free time poisoning their own bodies, having long since abandoned their dreams. (Ryutaro, who still reads, used to write fiction, his friend Yusuke was an artist, and so on.) Only in a few moments does the nihilistic Ryutaro show his anger and frustration – with other people, and with the world in general – and the words he spits out reverberate. (Description by Mark Peranson)
Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3363592
Locarno in Los Angeles is sponsored by:
Consulate General of Switzerland in Los Angeles
Ascona-Locarno Tourism
Ticino Tourism
KCOMM
Meggitt-USA
The Millennium Biltmore Los Angeles
Mariscos Jalisco
Yanai Initiative
Señor Fish
MUBI
Consulate General of Qatar in Los Angeles
LA OLA