Kids on the Slope

Sasebo, in Nagasaki prefecture, at the end of the 1960s. Kaoru is withdrawn, a good student, a pianist; his classmate Sentaro fights, sleeps in the yard and plays drums. They appear to have nothing whatever in common until jazz puts them in the same basement. Ritsuko joins them there. Takahiro Miki's 2018 film comes from Yuki Kodama's manga. Provincial Japan of the period, the church, school, family histories and jazz all belong to the same story. The music is not used as decoration; the idea of the film is that these two can only understand each other while playing. Yuri Chinen, Taishi Nakagawa and Nana Komatsu play them.