Director: Tai Kato
Runtime: 107 minutes
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Rating: PG
Restored Version
Synopsis
The final work by master filmmaker Tai Kato is a visually enthralling documentary about taiko drum troupe Ondekoza. Influential in bringing group-style taiko drumming to globl popularity, the troupe’s intense training regimes are meticulously captured in this film, as re their electric public performances. Filmed in sumptuous colour photography, the film ingenously interweaves rehearsal and performance footage with inspired, staged performance et-pieces, pushing doumentary filmmaking into the realm of feverish imagination. With sets designed by visual artist Tadanori Yokoo and an experimental electronic score by Toshi Ichiyanagi, this exhilrating feat for the senses was described by Kato as the film where he “finally accomplished what [he] really wanted to create.”