Firefly Dreams on DVD

DVDfever.co.uk – Press release: Firefly Dreams on DVD

Firefly Dreams on DVD Distributed by
Stoney Road Films

Posted: March 6th, 2009.

“…something like a minor masterpiece…” – New York Herald Tribune
“…a fine firm directorial eye and a pair of astutely crafted perfs.” – Variety

An amazingly assured first film from British-born, Welsh-raised longtime expat in Japan John Williams, Firefly Dreams (Ichiban Utsukushii Natsu) is a beautifully-realised coming-of-age tale in modern Japan. John has created a minor masterpiece working in Japanese with Japanese actors and crew. Release date 20th April 2009.

When her mother runs off with a new boyfriend, her father sends sullen rebellious teenage city girl Naomi to help out at an aunt’s hotel in the country amidst stunning mountain scenery. Delegated to keep an eye on elderly relative Mrs. Koide, whose memory is failing, Naomi is drawn into a generation-leaping relationship and driven to explore, via old photos, the fragile old lady’s hidden past as young wife, war widow and even filmstar, finding a parallel between the actress’s dumping by her director-lover and her own brief affair with a local delivery boy. Returning to the city after her father’s suicide and Mrs. Koide’s death, Naomi seeks out a video of Mrs. Koide’s movie Valley of the Fireflies and comes to an understanding of life and aging and achieves a degree of self-esteem and self-sufficiency she lacked before.

See the trailerWith totally engrossing performances by it’s two leads – Yoshie Minami, with roles in films by Kurosawa and other Japanese masters to her credit, as Mrs Koide and 21-year-old Maho Ukai in her first film role spot on as Naomi – Firefly Dreams is filmed beautifully by Yoshinobu Hayano and delicately edited by John Williams himself who also wrote the succinct script. Paul Rowe’s guitar score is haunting and effective. Dialogue is in Japanese with English subtitles.

Firefly Dreams has won awards in several international film festivals including Best Feature at Hawaii, Best Film at Manila, Audience Award at San Jose and Netpac Special Mention at Karlovy Vary.

The DVD is out on April 6th, it runs for 95, mins and retails for £12.99 on DVD,but is currently on Amazon at the link above for £9.49.

Vote and comment on this DVD:View CommentsView the discussion thread.blog comments powered by Disqus= 0) {query += ‘url’ + i + ‘=’ + encodeURIComponent(links[i].href) + ‘&’;}}document.write(”);})();//]]]]>]]>News page content input by Dominic Robinson, 2009.

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