Blood and Bones
Short description
Blood and Bones is a Japanese drama about Kim Shun-pei, a young man who leaves his home on Cheju Island in South Korea for Osaka, Japan, in 1923, hoping to build a better life. Over the decades he grows into a harsh, greedy and violent man, running a kamaboko factory in his poor Korean-Japanese community where he exploits the workers. At home his bitterness and rage poison his marriage and his relationships with his children, tearing apart the family he is trying to control.
The film was directed by Yōichi Sai, who wrote the screenplay with Wishing Chong. It came out in 2004, the same year as Sai's Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog. Takeshi Kitano plays the older Kim Shun-pei, heading a cast of twenty credited actors that includes Hirofumi Arai as Masao Kim, Kyoka Suzuki as Yong-hee Lee, Joe Odagiri as Takeshi Park, Yutaka Matsushige as Nobuyoshi Ko and Tomoko Tabata as Hanako Kim. Nozomu Enoki and Takehiko Nakajima produced.
Blood and Bones runs 144 minutes and was released in Japan on 6 November 2004, taking about 5 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from roughly 2,200 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.6 out of 10 from 57 votes, a smaller sample. The film is a drama set largely within Japan's Korean community across much of the twentieth century.
What's left behind the scenes
- The title of the film refers to an old Korean song, a loose translation of which reads: "My blood comes from my mother, and my bones from my father."
- The film is based on an autobiographical novella by Sogiru Yan, a writer well-known in Japan.
- Director Sai Yoichi admitted that without Takeshi Kitano, his film, which is based on real events, would have made no sense. For six whole years, he postponed filming, waiting for a moment when Kitano's schedule would allow him to fully commit to the role of Shunpei, whose prototype was the director's own father.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
