Tadanobu
Asano, Miyako Koda , Reika Hashimoto , Masao Kusakari, Syunji Fujimura
, Kyoko Enami
Director Macoto Tezka's harrowing drama is set in an alternate version
of the 1990s in which World War II never ended and the citizens
of Japan are subjected to nightly bombing raids. Japanese cult actor
Tadanobu Asano stars as Izawa, a lowly production assistant in the
corporate monolith Media Station, housed in a gleaming building
that towers above the ruins of Tokyo. He lives in squalor among
pigs and chickens in an old tailor's house, and he perpetually contemplates
suicide. A noose invitingly hangs from his ceiling if the mood were
to strike. Media Station's number-one idol is the beautiful but
malicious Ginga (Reika Hashimoto). Everyone in the company quietly
loathes the spoiled star, but they put up with her because of her
enormous popularity. Yet Ginga becomes enraged when her advances
on the thoroughly uninterested Izawa are thwarted. Meanwhile, Izawa
discovers a young woman, the wife of the neighborhood lunatic, hiding
in his room. Soon an odd sort of relationship develops between these
two deeply lonely souls. The woman quietly remains in Izawa's room
during the day and sleeps with him at night. Later, the nightly
air raids crescendo into a fiery apocalyptic climax. The Innocents
was screened at the 1999 Venice Film Festival.
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